T-SQL, show a set of rows (specific column) as a field, for a better desc, please see the table relationship

Question

I have been having a problem for quite a while now, that I can show with a sample of 5 tables (I'm actually dealing with more than 5!):

--------------------------------
shipments                       |
--------------------------------
idShipment | idRoute | idClient |
1          | 1       |     1    |
2          | 2       |     1    |
3          | 2       |     2    |
---------------------------------

-----------------------------------------
routes                                   |
-----------------------------------------
idRoute    | shortNameRoute |    name    |
1          | ACA            |  ACAPULCO  |
2          | MTY            |  MONTERREY |
-----------------------------------------

-------------------------
points                   |
-------------------------
idPoint    | PointName   |
1          | ACAPULCO    |
2          | ACAPULCO_2  |
3          | MONTERREY   |   
4          | MONTERREY_2 | 
--------------------------

-------------------------
clients                  |
-------------------------
idClient   | ClientName  |
1          | Mocosoft    |
2          | Mapple      |
--------------------------



 /*This table has the relationship between routes and points*/
--------------------------------
routePoints                     |
--------------------------------
idRoutePoint | idRoute | idPoint|
1            |   1     |   1    |
2            |   1     |   2    |
3            |   2     |   3    |
4            |   2     |   4    |
--------------------------------

How can I get the "point name(s)" for a route as a field in a result set? For example:

----------------------------------------------------------------
result                                                          |
----------------------------------------------------------------
idShipment | shortNameRoute | points                 | client   |
1          | ACA            | ACAPULCO,ACAPULCO_2    | Mocosoft |
2          | MTY            | MONTERREY,MONTERREY_2  | Mapple   |
-----------------------------------------------------------

To date I have been using .Net code to process the points by route. I imagine there is a more efficient way to do this with T-SQL.

Perhaps I need to "normalize" my database more efficiently?

I don't like performing a query request for every shipment, along with extra loops in my code, but until now, it's the only way and I'm kind of lost.

I expect the solution might involve something like PIVOT, SELECT nested or probably "WITH" Common Table Expressions, but, I'm not sure.

Note: I'm using SQLServer 2008 R2

Here is the script to create the DB with Data example (TEST_ROUTES)

USE [TEST_ROUTES]
GO

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[shipments]
(
    [idShipment] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    [idRoute] [int] NOT NULL,
    [idClient] [int] NOT NULL,
    CONSTRAINT [PK_shipments] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
    (
        [idShipment] ASC
    ) WITH (
        PAD_INDEX  = OFF
        , STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF
        , IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF
        , ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON
        , ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON
        ) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY];

GO

SET IDENTITY_INSERT [dbo].[shipments] ON;

INSERT [dbo].[shipments] ([idShipment], [idRoute], [idClient]) VALUES (1, 1, 1);
INSERT [dbo].[shipments] ([idShipment], [idRoute], [idClient]) VALUES (2, 2, 1);
INSERT [dbo].[shipments] ([idShipment], [idRoute], [idClient]) VALUES (3, 2, 2);

SET IDENTITY_INSERT [dbo].[shipments] OFF;


SET ANSI_NULLS ON;
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON;
GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[routes]
(
    [idRoute] [int] NOT NULL,
    [shortNameRoute] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
    [routeName] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
    CONSTRAINT [PK_routes] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
    (
        [idRoute] ASC
    ) WITH (
        PAD_INDEX  = OFF
        , STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF
        , IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF
        , ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON
        , ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON
    ) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY];

GO
INSERT [dbo].[routes] ([idRoute], [shortNameRoute], [routeName]) VALUES (1, N'ACA', N'ACAPULCO');
INSERT [dbo].[routes] ([idRoute], [shortNameRoute], [routeName]) VALUES (2, N'MTY', N'MONTERREY');

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[routePoints]
(
    [idRoutePoints] [int] NOT NULL,
    [idRoute] [int] NOT NULL,
    [idPoint] [int] NOT NULL,
    CONSTRAINT [PK_routePoints] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
    (
        [idRoutePoints] ASC
    ) WITH (
        PAD_INDEX  = OFF
        , STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF
        , IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF
        , ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON
        , ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON
    ) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY];

GO

INSERT [dbo].[routePoints] ([idRoutePoints], [idRoute], [idPoint]) VALUES (1, 1, 1);
INSERT [dbo].[routePoints] ([idRoutePoints], [idRoute], [idPoint]) VALUES (2, 1, 2);
INSERT [dbo].[routePoints] ([idRoutePoints], [idRoute], [idPoint]) VALUES (3, 2, 3);
INSERT [dbo].[routePoints] ([idRoutePoints], [idRoute], [idPoint]) VALUES (4, 2, 4);

SET ANSI_NULLS ON;
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON;
GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[points](
    [idPoint] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    [PointName] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
    CONSTRAINT [PK_points] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
    (
        [idPoint] ASC
    ) WITH (
        PAD_INDEX  = OFF
        , STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF
        , IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF
        , ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON
        , ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON
    ) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY];

GO

SET IDENTITY_INSERT [dbo].[points] ON;

INSERT [dbo].[points] ([idPoint], [PointName]) VALUES (1, N'ACAPULCO');
INSERT [dbo].[points] ([idPoint], [PointName]) VALUES (2, N'ACAPULCO_2');
INSERT [dbo].[points] ([idPoint], [PointName]) VALUES (3, N'MONTERREY');
INSERT [dbo].[points] ([idPoint], [PointName]) VALUES (4, N'MONTERREY_2');

SET IDENTITY_INSERT [dbo].[points] OFF;


SET ANSI_NULLS ON;
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON;
GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[clients]
(
    [idClient] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    [clientName] [nvarchar](50) NULL,
    CONSTRAINT [PK_clients] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
    (
        [idClient] ASC
    ) WITH (
        PAD_INDEX  = OFF
        , STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF
        , IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF
        , ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON
        , ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON
    ) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY];

GO

SET IDENTITY_INSERT [dbo].[clients] ON;

INSERT [dbo].[clients] ([idClient], [clientName]) VALUES (1, N'Mapple');
INSERT [dbo].[clients] ([idClient], [clientName]) VALUES (2, N'Mocosoft');

SET IDENTITY_INSERT [dbo].[clients] OFF;

Answer 1

There is a (crude) hack in SQL Server to do group_concats that should get what you need, below is a query for your example. I can't vouch for its performance so you will need to test/optimise as required.

select idshipment, shortnameroute,
(   
    select pointname +', ' 
    from points p
    inner join routepoints rp on rp.idpoint = p.idpoint
    where rp.idroute = r.idroute  for XML path ('')
), 
c.clientname
from shipments s
inner join [routes] r on r.idroute = s.idroute
inner join clients c on c.idclient = s.idclient