Agreed on GROUP_CONCAT. MSSQL has been missing that for a long time and it is a very reasonable and handy function to have.
It sounds like you are talking about the XML conversion method for concatenating groups. There is one other way around it using custom .NET CLR functions, but it is definitely cumbersome as well.
Yes, I'm referring to the XML conversion method. I'm aware you can register your own .NET CLR functions, but truth be told, it's a database for our POS application (which we purchased from a vendor), so I try to mess with the database as little as possible beyond reading the data through our own internal application so we can do useful things with it. I try to stay away from messing with the schema or even providing extra routines (I can't be sure anything would survive upgrades, which are regular and I don't want to deal with that).
It sounds like you are talking about the XML conversion method for concatenating groups. There is one other way around it using custom .NET CLR functions, but it is definitely cumbersome as well.