Parent-Child View without using Cursors

I would like to create a View (we'll call it FamilyView) using two tables, that I can then query against.
For example:

Parent
{
ID_PK,
Name,
PhoneNum,
Address
}

Child
{
ID_PK,
ParentID_FK,
Name
}

The view would return a dataset like this:

Parent.Name, Parent.PhoneNum, Parent.Address, Child.Name1, Child.Name2, Child.Name3... Child.NameN

William Smith, (555)555-5555, 123 Main Street, Susie, Peter, Bill Jr, Fred
Jason Jones, (666)666-6666, 54332 South Ave, Brian, Steven
Kay McPeak, (777)777-7777, 9876 Division NW, Kathy, Sally, Karen, Deb, Becky, Kendra, Ann, Edward

with an unknown number of children for each parent.

Then I would like to be able to query against this view with something like this:

SELECT * FROM FamilyView Where Child2 = 'Peter'

I have no idea how to write the SQL for this View. Is it possible?
Is this possible without using a cursor?

Thanks for any advice you all can give me.
BrianWhat Version of SQL Server?

If it's 2005, you can use CTE (Common Table Expreassions)

If it's 2000, you probably need to use a udf that returns a table|||It's SQL Server 2000.

Could you give me an example of how a UDF would be used to solve this please?|||So you want to find where the family tree for a child somewhere in the middle?|||I want to display each "family" in a single row in a result set and then be able to filter those families where the second child listed is 'Peter' (for example) and view only the families where Peter is the name of the second child. Does that make sense?

My real problem is a little more complex, but I thought that if I used this example it would eliminate a lot of explanation of the problem domain.|||Here you go, either a sproc, or a udf for set based stuff

CREATE TABLE Parent (
ID_PK int IDENTITY(1,1)
, [Name] varchar(20)
, PhoneNum varchar(20)
, Address varchar(30))

CREATE TABLE Child (
ID_PK int
, ParentID_FK int)
GO

INSERT INTO Parent([Name],PhoneNum, Address)
SELECT 'Annie', '111-111-1111', '1st Street' UNION ALL
SELECT 'Bob', '222-222-2222', '2nd Street' UNION ALL
SELECT 'Cathy', '333-333-3333', '3rd Street' UNION ALL
SELECT 'Don', '444-444-4444', '4th Street' UNION ALL
SELECT 'Emily', '555-555-5555', '5th Street' UNION ALL
SELECT 'Frank', '666-666-6666', '6th Street' UNION ALL
SELECT 'Georgette', '777-777-7777', '7th Street' UNION ALL
SELECT 'Harry', '888-888-8888', '8th Street'

INSERT INTO Child(ID_PK, ParentID_FK)
SELECT 1, null UNION ALL
SELECT 2, 1 UNION ALL
SELECT 3, 2 UNION ALL
SELECT 4, 3 UNION ALL
SELECT 5, null UNION ALL
SELECT 6, 5 UNION ALL
SELECT 7, 6 UNION ALL
SELECT 8, 7
GO

SELECT * FROM Parent p LEFT JOIN Child c ON p.ID_PK = c.ID_PK
GO

CREATE FUNCTION udf_FindTree (@.Child varchar(20))
RETURNS varchar(8000)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @.p int, @.p_save int, @.rs varchar(8000)
SELECT @.p = 0, @.p_save = 0
SELECT @.p = ParentID_FK FROM Child c JOIN Parent p ON c.ParentID_FK = p.ID_PK
WHERE [Name] = @.Child
--Loop Until @.@.rowcount = 0
WHILE Exists (SELECT ParentID_FK FROM Child c WHERE ID_PK = @.p)
BEGIN
SELECT @.p_save = @.p
SELECT @.p = ParentID_FK FROM Child c WHERE ID_PK = @.p_save
-- The Last assignement is the top Parent
END
--Now Walk from the top Down until @.@.rowcount = 0
SELECT @.p = @.p_save
SELECT @.rs = [Name] + ' ' + PhoneNum + ' ' + Address FROM Parent WHERE ID_PK = @.p
WHILE EXISTS (SELECT ID_PK FROM Child WHERE ParentID_FK = @.p)
BEGIN
SELECT @.rs = @.rs + ' ' + COALESCE([Name],'') FROM Parent WHERE ID_PK = @.p
SELECT @.p = ID_PK FROM Child WHERE ParentID_FK = @.p
END
RETURN @.rs
END
GO

SELECT dbo.udf_FindTree('Cathy')
GO

SELECT * FROM Child c JOIN Parent p ON c.ParentID_FK = p.ID_PK
WHERE [Name] = 'Cathy'
GO

CREATE PROC usp_FindTree @.Child varchar(20)
AS
SET NOCOUNT ON
DECLARE @.p int, @.p_save int, @.rs varchar(8000)
SELECT @.p = 0, @.p_save = 0
SELECT @.p = ParentID_FK FROM Child c JOIN Parent p ON c.ParentID_FK = p.ID_PK
WHERE [Name] = @.Child
--Loop Until @.@.rowcount = 0
WHILE Exists (SELECT ParentID_FK FROM Child c WHERE ID_PK = @.p)
BEGIN
SELECT @.p_save = @.p
SELECT @.p = ParentID_FK FROM Child c WHERE ID_PK = @.p_save
-- The Last assignement is the top Parent
END
--Now Walk from the top Down until @.@.rowcount = 0
SELECT @.p = @.p_save
SELECT @.rs = [Name] + ' ' + PhoneNum + ' ' + Address FROM Parent WHERE ID_PK = @.p
WHILE EXISTS (SELECT ID_PK FROM Child WHERE ParentID_FK = @.p)
BEGIN
SELECT @.rs = @.rs + ' ' + COALESCE([Name],'') FROM Parent WHERE ID_PK = @.p
SELECT @.p = ID_PK FROM Child WHERE ParentID_FK = @.p
END
SELECT @.rs AS rs
SET NOCOUNT OFF
GO

EXEC usp_FindTree 'Cathy'
GO

DROP PROC usp_FindTree
DROP Function udf_FindTree
DROP TABLE Parent, Child
GO|||You could even do

SELECT DISTINCT dbo.udf_FindTree([name]) FROM Parent
GO|||Your work here has actually taught me quite a bit about UDFs and I appreciate that very much, Thank you!

But what I'm looking for is something closer to what this SQL generates.

USE Northwind
GO

SELECT OrderID,
coalesce(MAX(CASE OD.rowno WHEN 1 THEN P.ProductName END), '') AS Product1,
coalesce(MAX(CASE OD.rowno WHEN 2 THEN P.ProductName END), '') AS Product2,
coalesce(MAX(CASE OD.rowno WHEN 3 THEN P.ProductName END), '') AS Product3,
coalesce(MAX(CASE OD.rowno WHEN 4 THEN P.ProductName END), '') AS Product4,
coalesce(MAX(CASE OD.rowno WHEN 5 THEN P.ProductName END), '') AS Product5,
coalesce(MAX(CASE OD.rowno WHEN 6 THEN P.ProductName END), '') AS Product6,
coalesce(MAX(CASE OD.rowno WHEN 7 THEN P.ProductName END), '') AS Product7
FROM (SELECT a.OrderID, a.ProductID,
rowno = (SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM [Order Details] b
WHERE b.OrderID = a.OrderID
AND b.ProductID <= a.ProductID)
FROM [Order Details] a) AS OD
JOIN Products P ON P.ProductID = OD.ProductID
GROUP BY OD.OrderID
ORDER BY OD.OrderID

Use Northwind database and assume [Order Details] as parent and [Products] as the child. See how all the data between the two tables are displayed in one row (but separate NAMED columns: Product1, Product2, ... etc.)? That's what I'm looking for. If I could write this code into a View (Which I can't) then I could query against the returned dataset like this.

SELECT * FROM OrderProductView WHERE Product1 = 'Chang'

and I would get all the same columns, but only including the rows with OrderIDs: {10255, 10258, 10264, etc}.

The problem with the above code is that I HAVE to know the number of "child" (Product) elements expected per order at design time. Also, the CASE construct is not valid in a View.|||So you don't care about a tree, just a key and all it's attributive rows?

Maybe something like

http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/brettk/archive/2005/02/23/4171.aspx|||Yes! This appears to be exactly what I've been looking for. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I was beginning to think this could only be executed in code outside the SQL.
I need to play with this a little to fully understand it all, but I think this will give me the results I need.
Thank you Brett for your patience and all your help!|||Just cut and paste the code example to see how it works

Good Luck

...oh, and you can buy me a margarita and we'll call it even|||Next time I'm in the Jersey area I might do just that. I really appreciate it.
And if you're ever in Grand Rapids...|||One more question...
My query is now too big to store in a local variable... I've managed to write the generated query to a file. Is there anyway I can execute this query from a text file?