Simulating group_concat MySQL function in Microsoft SQL Server 2005?

No REAL easy way to do this. Lots of ideas out there, though.

Best one I've found:

SELECT table_name, LEFT(column_names , LEN(column_names )-1) AS column_names
FROM information_schema.columns AS extern
CROSS APPLY
(
    SELECT column_name + ','
    FROM information_schema.columns AS intern
    WHERE extern.table_name = intern.table_name
    FOR XML PATH('')
) pre_trimmed (column_names)
GROUP BY table_name, column_names;

Or a version that works correctly if the data might contain characters such as <

WITH extern
     AS (SELECT DISTINCT table_name
         FROM   INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS)
SELECT table_name,
       LEFT(y.column_names, LEN(y.column_names) - 1) AS column_names
FROM   extern
       CROSS APPLY (SELECT column_name + ','
                    FROM   INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS AS intern
                    WHERE  extern.table_name = intern.table_name
                    FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE) x (column_names)
       CROSS APPLY (SELECT x.column_names.value('.', 'NVARCHAR(MAX)')) y(column_names) 

I may be a bit late to the party but this method works for me and is easier than the COALESCE method.

SELECT STUFF(
             (SELECT ',' + Column_Name 
              FROM Table_Name
              FOR XML PATH (''))
             , 1, 1, '')

Possibly too late to be of benefit now, but is this not the easiest way to do things?

SELECT     empName, projIDs = replace
                          ((SELECT Surname AS [data()]
                              FROM project_members
                              WHERE  empName = a.empName
                              ORDER BY empName FOR xml path('')), ' ', REQUIRED SEPERATOR)
FROM         project_members a
WHERE     empName IS NOT NULL
GROUP BY empName