SQL Call Stored Procedure for each Row without using a cursor

How can one call a stored procedure for each row in a table, where the columns of a row are input parameters to the sp without using a Cursor?

Generally speaking I always look for a set based approach (sometimes at the expense of changing the schema).

However, this snippet does have its place..

-- Declare & init (2008 syntax)
DECLARE @CustomerID INT = 0

-- Iterate over all customers
WHILE (1 = 1) 
BEGIN  

  -- Get next customerId
  SELECT TOP 1 @CustomerID = CustomerID
  FROM Sales.Customer
  WHERE CustomerID > @CustomerId 
  ORDER BY CustomerID

  -- Exit loop if no more customers
  IF @@ROWCOUNT = 0 BREAK;
	
  -- call your sproc
  EXEC dbo.YOURSPROC @CustomerId

END

You could do something like this: order your table by e.g. CustomerID (using the AdventureWorks Sales.Customer sample table), and iterate over those customers using a WHILE loop:

-- define the last customer ID handled
DECLARE @LastCustomerID INT
SET @LastCustomerID = 0

-- define the customer ID to be handled now
DECLARE @CustomerIDToHandle INT

-- select the next customer to handle    
SELECT TOP 1 @CustomerIDToHandle = CustomerID
FROM Sales.Customer
WHERE CustomerID > @LastCustomerID
ORDER BY CustomerID

-- as long as we have customers......    
WHILE @CustomerIDToHandle IS NOT NULL
BEGIN
	-- call your sproc
	
    -- set the last customer handled to the one we just handled
	SET @LastCustomerID = @CustomerIDToHandle
	SET @CustomerIDToHandle = NULL
	
    -- select the next customer to handle    
	SELECT TOP 1 @CustomerIDToHandle = CustomerID
	FROM Sales.Customer
	WHERE CustomerID > @LastCustomerID
    ORDER BY CustomerID
END

That should work with any table as long as you can define some kind of an ORDER BY on some column.

DECLARE @SQL varchar(max)=''

-- MyTable has fields fld1 & fld2

Select @SQL = @SQL + 'exec myproc ' + convert(varchar(10),fld1) + ',' 
                   + convert(varchar(10),fld2) + ';'
From MyTable

EXEC (@SQL)

Ok, so I would never put such code into production, but it does satisfy your requirements.

I'd use the accepted answer, but another possibility is to use a table variable to hold a numbered set of values (in this case just the ID field of a table) and loop through those by Row Number with a JOIN to the table to retrieve whatever you need for the action within the loop.

DECLARE @RowCnt int; SET @RowCnt = 0 -- Loop Counter

-- Use a table variable to hold numbered rows containg MyTable's ID values
DECLARE @tblLoop TABLE (RowNum int IDENTITY (1, 1) Primary key NOT NULL,
     ID INT )
INSERT INTO @tblLoop (ID)  SELECT ID FROM MyTable

  -- Vars to use within the loop
  DECLARE @Code NVarChar(10); DECLARE @Name NVarChar(100);

WHILE @RowCnt < (SELECT COUNT(RowNum) FROM @tblLoop)
BEGIN
    SET @RowCnt = @RowCnt + 1
    -- Do what you want here with the data stored in tblLoop for the given RowNum
    SELECT @Code=Code, @Name=LongName
      FROM MyTable INNER JOIN @tblLoop tL on MyTable.ID=tL.ID
      WHERE tl.RowNum=@RowCnt
    PRINT Convert(NVarChar(10),@RowCnt) +' '+ @Code +' '+ @Name
END

Marc's answer is good (I'd comment on it if I could work out how to!)
Just thought I'd point out that it may be better to change the loop so the SELECT only exists once (in a real case where I needed to do this, the SELECT was quite complex, and writing it twice was a risky maintenance issue).

-- define the last customer ID handled
DECLARE @LastCustomerID INT
SET @LastCustomerID = 0
-- define the customer ID to be handled now
DECLARE @CustomerIDToHandle INT
SET @CustomerIDToHandle = 1

-- as long as we have customers......    
WHILE @LastCustomerID <> @CustomerIDToHandle
BEGIN  
  SET @LastCustomerId = @CustomerIDToHandle
  -- select the next customer to handle    
  SELECT TOP 1 @CustomerIDToHandle = CustomerID
  FROM Sales.Customer
  WHERE CustomerID > @LastCustomerId 
  ORDER BY CustomerID

  IF @CustomerIDToHandle <> @LastCustomerID
  BEGIN
      -- call your sproc
  END

END

If you can turn the stored procedure into a function that returns a table, then you can use cross-apply.

For example, say you have a table of customers, and you want to compute the sum of their orders, you would create a function that took a CustomerID and returned the sum.

And you could do this:

SELECT CustomerID, CustomerSum.Total

FROM Customers
CROSS APPLY ufn_ComputeCustomerTotal(Customers.CustomerID) AS CustomerSum

Where the function would look like:

CREATE FUNCTION ComputeCustomerTotal
(
	@CustomerID INT
)
RETURNS TABLE
AS
RETURN
(
    SELECT SUM(CustomerOrder.Amount) AS Total FROM CustomerOrder WHERE CustomerID = @CustomerID
)

Obviously, the example above could be done without a user defined function in a single query.

The drawback is that functions are very limited - many of the features of a stored procedure are not available in a user-defined function, and converting a stored procedure to a function does not always work.

For SQL Server 2005 onwards, you can do this with CROSS APPLY and a table-valued function.

• Using CROSS APPLY in SQL Server 2005

Just for clarity, I'm referring to those cases where the stored procedure can be converted into a table valued function.

This is a variation on the answers already provided, but should be better performing because it doesn't require ORDER BY, COUNT or MIN/MAX. The only disadvantage with this approach is that you have to create a temp table to hold all the Ids (the assumption is that you have gaps in your list of CustomerIDs).

That said, I agree with @Mark Powell though that, generally speaking, a set based approach should still be better.

DECLARE @tmp table (Id INT IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL, CustomerID INT NOT NULL)
DECLARE @CustomerId INT 
DECLARE @Id INT = 0

INSERT INTO @tmp SELECT CustomerId FROM Sales.Customer

WHILE (1=1)
BEGIN
    SELECT @CustomerId = CustomerId, @Id = Id
	FROM @tmp
	WHERE Id = @Id + 1

	IF @@rowcount = 0 BREAK;

	-- call your sproc
	EXEC dbo.YOURSPROC @CustomerId;
END

This is a variation of n3rds solution above. No sorting by using ORDER BY is needed, as MIN() is used.

Remember that CustomerID (or whatever other numerical column you use for progress) must have a unique constraint. Furthermore, to make it as fast as possible CustomerID must be indexed on.

-- Declare & init
DECLARE @CustomerID INT = (SELECT MIN(CustomerID) FROM Sales.Customer); -- First ID
DECLARE @Data1 VARCHAR(200);
DECLARE @Data2 VARCHAR(200);

-- Iterate over all customers
WHILE @CustomerID IS NOT NULL
BEGIN  

  -- Get data based on ID
  SELECT @Data1 = Data1, @Data2 = Data2
    FROM Sales.Customer
    WHERE [ID] = @CustomerID ;

  -- call your sproc
  EXEC dbo.YOURSPROC @Data1, @Data2

  -- Get next customerId
  SELECT @CustomerID = MIN(CustomerID)
    FROM Sales.Customer
    WHERE CustomerID > @CustomerId 

END

I use this approach on some varchars I need to look over, by putting them in a temporary table first, to give them an ID.

If you don't what to use a cursor I think you'll have to do it externally (get the table, and then run for each statement and each time call the sp) it Is the same as using a cursor, but only outside SQL. Why won't you use a cursor ?

I usually do it this way when it's a quite a few rows:

1. Select all sproc parameters in a dataset with SQL Management Studio
2. Right-click -> Copy
3. Paste in to excel
4. Create single-row sql statements with a formula like '="EXEC schema.mysproc @param=" & A2' in a new excel column. (Where A2 is your excel column containing the parameter)
5. Copy the list of excel statements into a new query in SQL Management Studio and execute.
6. Done.

(On larger datasets i'd use one of the solutions mentioned above though).

DELIMITER //

CREATE PROCEDURE setFakeUsers (OUT output VARCHAR(100))
BEGIN

	-- define the last customer ID handled
	DECLARE LastGameID INT;
	DECLARE CurrentGameID INT;
	DECLARE userID INT;
	
	SET @LastGameID = 0; 
	
	-- define the customer ID to be handled now
	
	SET @userID = 0;
	
	-- select the next game to handle    
	SELECT @CurrentGameID = id
	FROM online_games
	WHERE id > LastGameID
	ORDER BY id LIMIT 0,1;
	
	-- as long as we have customers......    
	WHILE (@CurrentGameID IS NOT NULL) 
	DO
	    -- call your sproc
	
	    -- set the last customer handled to the one we just handled
	    SET @LastGameID = @CurrentGameID;
	    SET @CurrentGameID = NULL;
	    
	    -- select the random bot
	    SELECT @userID = userID
	    FROM users
	    WHERE FIND_IN_SET('bot',baseInfo)
	    ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 0,1;
	    
	    -- update the game
	    UPDATE online_games SET userID = @userID WHERE id = @CurrentGameID;
	
	    -- select the next game to handle    
	    SELECT @CurrentGameID = id
		 FROM online_games
		 WHERE id > LastGameID
		 ORDER BY id LIMIT 0,1;
	END WHILE;
	SET output = "done";
END;//

CALL setFakeUsers(@status);
SELECT @status;

A better solution for this is to

> 1. Copy/past code of Stored Procedure > 2. Join that code with the table for which you want to run it again (for each row)

This was you get a clean table-formatted output. While if you run SP for every row, you get a separate query result for each iteration which is ugly.

In case the order is important

--declare counter
DECLARE 	@CurrentRowNum BIGINT = 0;
--Iterate over all rows in [DataTable]
WHILE (1 = 1)
	BEGIN
		--Get next row by number of row
		SELECT TOP 1 @CurrentRowNum = extendedData.RowNum
					--here also you can store another values
					--for following usage
					--@MyVariable = extendedData.Value
		FROM	(
					SELECT 
						data.*
						,ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY (SELECT 0)) RowNum
					FROM [DataTable] data
				) extendedData
		WHERE extendedData.RowNum > @CurrentRowNum
		ORDER BY extendedData.RowNum

		--Exit loop if no more rows
		IF @@ROWCOUNT = 0 BREAK;
		  
		--call your sproc
		--EXEC dbo.YOURSPROC @MyVariable
	END

I had some production code that could only handle 20 employees at a time, below is the framework for the code. I just copied the production code and removed stuff below.

ALTER procedure GetEmployees
    @ClientId varchar(50)
as
begin
    declare @EEList table (employeeId varchar(50));
    declare @EE20 table (employeeId varchar(50));

    insert into @EEList select employeeId from Employee where (ClientId = @ClientId);

    -- Do 20 at a time
    while (select count(*) from @EEList) > 0
    BEGIN
      insert into @EE20 select top 20 employeeId from @EEList;

      -- Call sp here
            
      delete @EEList where employeeId in (select employeeId from @EE20)
      delete @EE20;
    END;
  
  RETURN
end

I had a situation where I needed to perform a series of operations on a result set (table). The operations are all set operations, so its not an issue, but... I needed to do this in multiple places. So putting the relevant pieces in a table type, then populating a table variable w/ each result set allows me to call the sp and repeat the operations each time i need to .

While this does not address the exact question he asks, it does address how to perform an operation on all rows of a table without using a cursor.

@Johannes offers no insight into his motivation , so this may or may not help him.

my research led me to this well written article which served as a basis for my solution https://codingsight.com/passing-data-table-as-parameter-to-stored-procedures/

Here is the setup

    drop type if exists cpRootMapType 
go 

create type cpRootMapType as Table(
	RootId1 int 
	, RootId2 int
)

go 
drop procedure if exists spMapRoot2toRoot1
go 
create procedure spMapRoot2toRoot1
(
@map cpRootMapType Readonly
)
as

update linkTable set root = root1  
from linktable  lt 
join @map m on lt.root = root2

update comments set root = root1 
from comments c 
join @map m on c.root = root2

--  ever growing list of places this map would need to be applied....
--  now consolidated into one place 

here is the implementation

... populate #matches

declare @map cpRootMapType 
insert @map select rootid1, rootid2 from #matches
exec spMapRoot2toRoot1 @map 

I like to do something similar to this (though it is still very similar to using a cursor)

[code]

-- Table variable to hold list of things that need looping
DECLARE @holdStuff TABLE ( 
	id INT IDENTITY(1,1) , 
	isIterated BIT DEFAULT 0 , 
	someInt INT ,
	someBool BIT ,
	otherStuff VARCHAR(200)
)

-- Populate your @holdStuff with... stuff
INSERT INTO @holdStuff ( 
	someInt ,
	someBool ,
	otherStuff
)
SELECT	
	1 , -- someInt - int
	1 , -- someBool - bit
	'I like turtles'  -- otherStuff - varchar(200)
UNION ALL
SELECT	
	42 , -- someInt - int
	0 , -- someBool - bit
	'something profound'  -- otherStuff - varchar(200)

-- Loop tracking variables
DECLARE @tableCount INT
SET		@tableCount = (SELECT COUNT(1) FROM [@holdStuff])

DECLARE @loopCount INT
SET		@loopCount = 1

-- While loop variables
DECLARE @id INT
DECLARE @someInt INT
DECLARE @someBool BIT
DECLARE @otherStuff VARCHAR(200)
    
-- Loop through item in @holdStuff
WHILE (@loopCount <= @tableCount)
	BEGIN
		
		-- Increment the loopCount variable
		SET @loopCount = @loopCount + 1
		
		-- Grab the top unprocessed record
		SELECT	TOP 1 
			@id = id ,
			@someInt = someInt ,
			@someBool = someBool ,
			@otherStuff = otherStuff
		FROM	@holdStuff
		WHERE	isIterated = 0
		
		-- Update the grabbed record to be iterated
		UPDATE	@holdAccounts
		SET		isIterated = 1
		WHERE	id = @id
		
		-- Execute your stored procedure
		EXEC someRandomSp @someInt, @someBool, @otherStuff
		
	END
	

[/code]

Note that you don't need the identity or the isIterated column on your temp/variable table, i just prefer to do it this way so i don't have to delete the top record from the collection as i iterate through the loop.