SQL Server 2000 Cursor Problem

hello guys, i know this not the right forum but i thought there are quite a good number of SQL Server 2000 gurus as well, to help me out. i have the following piece of Code in T-SQL.

Code:

---

DECLARE @strIMEIColl VarChar(8000)
DECLARE @strIMEI VarChar(15)

DECLARE curMatched CURSOR
FOR
SELECT DISTINCT(IMEI) FROM IC_Data
OPEN curMatched

FETCH NEXT FROM curMatched INTO @strIMEI
SELECT @strIMEIColl =  CHAR(39) + @strIMEI + Char(39)

FETCH NEXT FROM curMatched INTO @strIMEI
        WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
        BEGIN
                select @strIMEIColl = @strIMEIColl + ',' + CHAR(39) + @strIMEI + Char(39)                       
                FETCH NEXT FROM curMatched INTO        @strIMEI
        END

WHILE @strIMEI = '' BEGIN
        SELECT @strIMEIColl = @strIMEIColl + ',' + @strIMEI       
        FETCH NEXT FROM curMatched INTO @strIMEI
END

CLOSE curMatched
DEALLOCATE curMatched
PRINT @strIMEIColl
SELECT * FROM IC_Data WHERE IMEI IN(@strIMEIColl)

---

The variable @strIMEIColl has more than 20 Comma Seperated list of IMEI numbers, but still the Select statement wont show any thing. The PRINT @strIMEIColl statement shows the values correctly.
I tried using
Please tell me where am i getting wrong, or is there an alternative to it also ?!?!

Moved to Database section

IN () simply does not work that way.

IN ('A','B','C','D') works - those are hardwired values.

You should be building a temp table or table variable with each item you want selected as a separate row.

Then use

WHERE... EXISTS IN (SELECT IMEI FROM #TEMPTABLE)

or even better

FROM #TEMPTABLE TX
LEFT JOIN OTHERTABLES OX ON OX.IMEI=TX.IMEI

btw - avoid the CURSOR - use a loop.

Here's a thread that talks about this very issue

http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.p...ghlight=exists