Parameterize an SQL IN clause

How do I parameterize a query containing an IN clause with a variable number of arguments, like this one?

SELECT * FROM Tags 
WHERE Name IN ('ruby','rails','scruffy','rubyonrails')
ORDER BY Count DESC

In this query, the number of arguments could be anywhere from 1 to 5.

I would prefer not to use a dedicated stored procedure for this (or XML), but if there is some elegant way specific to SQL Server 2008, I am open to that.

Answer

Here’s a quick-and-dirty technique I have used:

SELECT * FROM Tags
WHERE '|ruby|rails|scruffy|rubyonrails|'
LIKE '%|' + Name + '|%'

So here’s the C# code:

string[] tags = new string[] { "ruby", "rails", "scruffy", "rubyonrails" };
const string cmdText = "select * from tags where '|' + @tags + '|' like '%|' + Name + '|%'";

using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(cmdText)) {
   cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@tags", string.Join("|", tags);
}

Two caveats:

• The performance is terrible. LIKE "%...%" queries are not indexed.
• Make sure you don’t have any |, blank, or null tags or this won’t work

There are other ways to accomplish this that some people may consider cleaner, so please keep reading.