>>I'm sure I knew the answer to this and even used it but for some reason I am currently brain dead.
>>
>>I want to pass in from VFP a comma separated string of character values to this where clause
>>
>>WHERE Future_change.Symbol IN (@symbollist)
>>
>>If I use
>>
>>WHERE Future_change.Symbol IN ('ES032','AXA','GOOG')
>>
>>in SSMS I get exactly the results I want.
>>
>>Even in SSMS, though, I can't remember how to set the value in @symbollist ( varchar(100))
>>so as to get the equivalent of ['ES032','AXA','GOOG']
>>
>>I'm sure I asked this before but for some reason the answer doesn't stick.
>>
>>TIA
>
>Take a look at the very recent and great article by Jeff Moden
>http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/
>
>BTW, in SQL 2008 you don't need to pass comma-delimited list of values anymore - you can pass a table of values.
>
>You may also want to review this classical article by Erland Sommarskog
>Arrays & Lists in SQL Server

Thanks once again for the great links. I will certainly use those resources for other things as well.

I use TVPs regularly from .NET and have written a number of sprocs to facilitate that. In this case I am working from VFP.

I also realized that the list of strings that I am trying to munge into a parameter is actually derived from a remote view against sql data anyway, so in this case I will just use a subquery that mimics that query on the back end to get what I need all in one remote view.

But there is still the question - is it not possible in t sql to represent a string of strings :???

" 'one', 'two' , 'three' "

( think my mistaken memory that I had a solution for this is T SQL in the past was actually remembering the first time I asked about doing it in .NET )