Passing a Variable to an IN List

SELECT person_id, person_name
FROM MyUsers
WHERE person_id IN (@search_list);

-- Create the test table
CREATE TABLE MyUsers (
 person_id INT PRIMARY KEY,
 person_name VARCHAR(35));
 
-- Insert sample data
INSERT INTO MyUsers VALUES (1327, 'Joe');
INSERT INTO MyUsers VALUES (1342, 'John F.');
INSERT INTO MyUsers VALUES (1411, 'Mary');
INSERT INTO MyUsers VALUES (1345, 'Nancy');
INSERT INTO MyUsers VALUES (1366, 'Greg');
INSERT INTO MyUsers VALUES (1367, 'Jeff');
INSERT INTO MyUsers VALUES (1368, 'Chris');
INSERT INTO MyUsers VALUES (1369, 'John M.');
INSERT INTO MyUsers VALUES (1370, 'Peggy');
INSERT INTO MyUsers VALUES (1371, 'Samuel');
INSERT INTO MyUsers VALUES (1372, 'Tony');
INSERT INTO MyUsers VALUES (1373, 'Lisa');
INSERT INTO MyUsers VALUES (1374, 'Tom');
INSERT INTO MyUsers VALUES (1375, 'Dave');
INSERT INTO MyUsers VALUES (1376, 'Peter');
INSERT INTO MyUsers VALUES (1377, 'Jason');
INSERT INTO MyUsers VALUES (1378, 'Justin');
INSERT INTO MyUsers VALUES (1379, 'Oscar');
 
DECLARE @search_list VARCHAR(100);
 
DECLARE @delimiter CHAR(1);
 
SELECT @search_list = '1327,1342,1411',
       @delimiter = ',';
 
-- Get the users based on the delimited variable list
SELECT person_id, person_name 
FROM MyUsers
WHERE person_id IN 
     (SELECT SUBSTRING(string, 2, CHARINDEX(@delimiter, string, 2) - 2)
      FROM (SELECT SUBSTRING(list, n, LEN(list))
            FROM (SELECT @delimiter + @search_list + @delimiter) AS L(list),
                 (SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY person_id)
                  FROM MyUsers) AS Nums(n)
            WHERE n <= LEN(list)) AS D(string) 
      WHERE LEN(string) > 1
        AND SUBSTRING(string, 1, 1) = @delimiter)
ORDER BY person_id;

-- Results
person_id person_name
-------- ------------------------------
1327     Joe
1342     John F.
1411     Mary

Labels: row number, t-sql programming