Passing an array of parameters to a stored procedure

Use a stored procedure:

EDIT: A complement for serialize List (or anything else):

List<string> testList = new List<int>();

testList.Add(1);
testList.Add(2);
testList.Add(3);

XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<int>));
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
xs.Serialize(ms, testList);

string resultXML = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetString(ms.ToArray());

The result (ready to use with XML parameter):

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ArrayOfInt xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <int>1</int>
  <int>2</int>
  <int>3</int>
</ArrayOfInt>

ORIGINAL POST:

Passing XML as parameter:

<ids>
    <id>1</id>
    <id>2</id>
</ids>

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[DeleteAllData]
(
    @XMLDoc XML
)
AS
BEGIN

DECLARE @handle INT

EXEC sp_xml_preparedocument @handle OUTPUT, @XMLDoc

DELETE FROM
    YOURTABLE
WHERE
    YOUR_ID_COLUMN NOT IN (
        SELECT * FROM OPENXML (@handle, '/ids/id') WITH (id INT '.') 
    )
EXEC sp_xml_removedocument @handle

this is the best source:

http://www.sommarskog.se/arrays-in-sql.html

create a split function using the link, and use it like:

DELETE YourTable
    FROM YourTable                           d
    LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.splitFunction(@Parameter) s ON d.ID=s.Value
    WHERE s.Value IS NULL

I prefer the number table approach

This is code based on the above link that should do it for you...

Before you use my function, you need to set up a "helper" table, you only need to do this one time per database:

CREATE TABLE Numbers
(Number int  NOT NULL,
    CONSTRAINT PK_Numbers PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (Number ASC)WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]
DECLARE @x int
SET @x=0
WHILE @x<8000
BEGIN
    SET @x=@x+1
    INSERT INTO Numbers VALUES (@x)
END

use this function to split your string, which does not loop and is very fast:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[FN_ListToTable]
(
     @SplitOn              char(1)              --REQUIRED, the character to split the @List string on
    ,@List                 varchar(8000)        --REQUIRED, the list to split apart
)
RETURNS
@ParsedList table
(
    ListValue varchar(500)
)
AS
BEGIN

/**
Takes the given @List string and splits it apart based on the given @SplitOn character.
A table is returned, one row per split item, with a column name "ListValue".
This function workes for fixed or variable lenght items.
Empty and null items will not be included in the results set.


Returns a table, one row per item in the list, with a column name "ListValue"

EXAMPLE:
----------
SELECT * FROM dbo.FN_ListToTable(',','1,12,123,1234,54321,6,A,*,|||,,,,B')

    returns:
        ListValue  
        -----------
        1
        12
        123
        1234
        54321
        6
        A
        *
        |||
        B

        (10 row(s) affected)

**/



----------------
--SINGLE QUERY-- --this will not return empty rows
----------------
INSERT INTO @ParsedList
        (ListValue)
    SELECT
        ListValue
        FROM (SELECT
                  LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(List2, number+1, CHARINDEX(@SplitOn, List2, number+1)-number - 1))) AS ListValue
                  FROM (
                           SELECT @SplitOn + @List + @SplitOn AS List2
                       ) AS dt
                      INNER JOIN Numbers n ON n.Number < LEN(dt.List2)
                  WHERE SUBSTRING(List2, number, 1) = @SplitOn
             ) dt2
        WHERE ListValue IS NOT NULL AND ListValue!=''



RETURN

END --Function FN_ListToTable

you can use this function as a table in a join:

SELECT
    Col1, COl2, Col3...
    FROM  YourTable
        INNER JOIN dbo.FN_ListToTable(',',@YourString) s ON  YourTable.ID = s.ListValue

here is your delete:

DELETE YourTable
    FROM YourTable                                d
    LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.FN_ListToTable(',',@Parameter) s ON d.ID=s.ListValue
    WHERE s.ListValue IS NULL

You could try this:

DECLARE @List VARCHAR(MAX)

SELECT @List = '1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8'

EXEC(
'DELETE
FROM TABLE
WHERE ID NOT IN (' + @List + ')'
)

You could use a temp table which the stored procedure expects to exist. This will work on older versions of SQL Server, which do not support XML etc.

CREATE TABLE #temp
(INT myid)
GO
CREATE PROC myproc
AS
BEGIN
    DELETE YourTable
    FROM YourTable                    
    LEFT OUTER JOIN #temp T ON T.myid=s.id
    WHERE s.id IS NULL
END

I'd consider passing your IDs as an XML string, and then you could shred the XML into a temp table to join against, or you could also query against the XML directly using SP_XML_PREPAREDOCUMENT and OPENXML.

What about using the XML data type instead of passing an array. I find that a better solution and works well in SQL 2005

You could use the STRING_SPLIT function in SQL Server. You can check the documentation here.

DECLARE @YourListOfIds VARCHAR(1000) -- Or VARCHAR(MAX) depending on what you need

SET @YourListOfIds = '1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8'

SELECT * FROM YourTable
WHERE Id IN(SELECT CAST(Value AS INT) FROM STRING_SPLIT(@YourListOfIds, ','))