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Inline and multi-statement table-valued functions Part three of a four-part series of blogs
This blog shows you how to create table-valued functions in SQL (ie functions which return a table of data!). Table-valued functions in SQL Simple (in-line) table-valued functions Multi-Statement Table-Valued Functions (this blog) Limitations of table-valued functions This blog is part of our SQL tutorial. If you're looking for a classroom course, have a look at our SQL classroom-based training.

Inline and multi-statement table-valued functions

Part three of a four-part series of blogs

This blog shows you how to create table-valued functions in SQL (ie functions which return a table of data!).

Table-valued functions in SQL
Simple (in-line) table-valued functions
Multi-Statement Table-Valued Functions (this blog)
Limitations of table-valued functions

This blog is part of our SQL tutorial. If you're looking for a classroom course, have a look at our SQL classroom-based training.

Posted by Andy Brown on 08 February 2013

Multi-Statement Table-Valued Functions

A multi-statement table-valued function (which I wall call from now on the equally unmemorable MSTVF) is a function which returns a table of data, but only after some additional processing.

An example - show all the people born in a particular year

Suppose that you frequently want to show all of the actors or directors in a films database who were born in a particular year. To this end you want to get the following function working:

-- show actors and directors born in 1945

SELECT

PersonName AS Who,

PersonRole AS What,

CONVERT(char(10),Dob,103) AS DOB

FROM

dbo.fnPeopleBornYear(1945)

ORDER BY

Dob

So the function called fnPeopleBornYear will take an integer parameter (the year of birth), and spit out some rows. Here's what the example below would show:

The results for the Wise Owl Movies database: two directors and two actors.

It would be possible to create this as a simple in-line table-valued function using the UNION ALL keyword, but I'm going to build it up in two stages: first add the actors, then add the directors.

Syntax of a MSTVF

Here is the basic syntax of a multi-statement table-valued function (someone give these things a snappier name, please!):

CREATE FUNCTION fnName(

-- can have 0, 1, 2 or more parameters

@param1 datatype,

@param2 datatype, ...

)

-- define table to return

RETURNS @TableName TABLE (

Column1 datatype,

Column2 datatype,

...

Columnn datatype,

)

BEGIN

-- typically insert rows into this table

-- eventually, return the results

RETURN

END

With that in mind, let's look at how we could write our fnPeopleBornYear function.

Our example - building up a table of rows to return

Here's how you could write the SQL for our function. First pass in the parameter giving the year in question:

CREATE FUNCTION fnPeopleBornYear(

@BirthYear int

)

Next, define what the output from the function will be - a table with 3 columns:

RETURNS @people TABLE (

PersonName varchar(50),

PersonRole varchar(50),

Dob datetime

)

You now need to begin your function proper:

-- all code lies in a BEGIN / END block

BEGIN

You can now add one row to our table for each actor born in the year in question:

-- insert the actors born in this year into table

INSERT INTO @people (

PersonName,

PersonRole,

Dob

)

SELECT

ActorName,

'Actor',

ActorDob

FROM

tblActor

WHERE

Year(ActorDob) = @BirthYear

I've written a separate blog on SQL statements for inserting rows into tables, if you need a refresher on this.

Now you can add the directors born in the year in question into the table:

-- now add the directors born in this year

INSERT INTO @people (

PersonName,

PersonRole,

Dob

)

SELECT

DirectorName,

'Director',

DirectorDob

FROM

tblDirector

WHERE

Year(DirectorDob) = @BirthYear

Finally, you can end the function by saying that you want to return the set of rows built up:

-- return the results

RETURN

END

Phew - I don't have to write the phrase Multi-Statement Table-Valued Function again!

As the last part of this blog, we'll have a look at some of the limitations of table-valued functions.

Parts of this blog
Table-valued functions in SQL Simple (in-line) table-valued functions Multi-Statement Table-Valued Functions (this blog) Limitations of table-valued functions

Some other pages relevant to the above blogs include:

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Multi-Statement Table-Valued Functions

An example - show all the people born in a particular year

Syntax of a MSTVF

Our example - building up a table of rows to return

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