comma delimited lists in sql server

once upon a time I did this with cursors (cursors, cursors I say!)

  this is easier:

ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[getCommaDelim]

AS

BEGIN

      -- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from

      -- interfering with SELECT statements.

      SET NOCOUNT ON;

    declare  @list varchar(1000)

set @list = ''

   

      SELECT @list =@list + name + ',' from customers

select @list

END

if the @list is not set thusly:
set @list = ''
then the result will be null