Advanced SQL.

Hierarchical queries

Nataliya Bogushevskaya

2019

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HIERARCHICAL DATA

Hierarchical data is defined as a set of data items that are related to each
other by hierarchical relationships.
Hierarchical relationships exist where one item of data is the parent of another
item.
Examples of the hierarchical data that is commonly stored in databases include
the following:
• an organizational structure
• a file system
• a set of tasks in a project
• a graph of links between Web pages

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HIERARCHICAL DATA

ROOT

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WITH CONNECT BY
(ORACLE)

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CONNECT BY

Hierarchical query clause

• START WITH specifies the root row(s) of the hierarchy (not mandatory);
• PRIOR operator refers to the parent row;
• CONNECT BY specifies the relationship between parent rows and child rows of the
hierarchy.

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EXAMPLE

List all managers for some employee:

SELECT employee_id, manager_id, first_name, last_name

FROM employees

START WITH employee_id = 108 Starting point

CONNECT BY employee_id = PRIOR manager_id;

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EXAMPLE

List all subordinates for some employee:

SELECT employee_id, manager_id, first_name, last_name

FROM employees

START WITH employee_id = 108 Starting point

CONNECT BY PRIOR employee_id = manager_id;

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PRACTICE

Select all subordinates of Steven King

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EXECUTION

Oracle processes hierarchical queries as follows:

1. joins;
2. start with/connect by;
3. where;
4. group by and having;
5. order by.

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OPERATORS AND PSEUDOCOLUMNS

PRIOR

• PRIOR – retrieves previous filed in SELECT-clause

For each employee get his/her manager name

SELECT employee_id, manager_id, first_name, last_name

, PRIOR first_name AS m_first_name, PRIOR last_name
AS m_last_name
FROM employees
CONNECT BY PRIOR employee_id = manager_id
START WITH manager_id IS NULL;

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OPERATORS AND PSEUDOCOLUMNS

LEVEL

• LEVEL – returns 1 for a root row, 2 for a child of a root, and so on.

For each employee determine her/his level in hierarchy

SELECT employee_id, manager_id, first_name, last_name,LEVEL

FROM employees
CONNECT BY PRIOR employee_id = manager_id
START WITH manager_id IS NULL;

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PRACTICE #1

Print list of employees in a tree-view

Note. Use LPAD(' ',(LEVEL-1)*3,'-') for the shifting

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PRACTICE #2

Generate sequential numbers from 1 to 100

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PRACTICE #3

Generate dates from now (sysdate) till the end of the year.

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PRACTICE #4

Select all managers of employee with phone_number = '650.505.2876'. Don't

show the actual employee.

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PRACTICE #5

The table contains the ordered set or numbers, for example (3, 6, 8, 9, 11 , …).
Return three smallest missing numbers (4, 5, 7).

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PRACTICE #6

Table contains one row and one field. This field stores some arithmetical
expression with numbers, arithmetic signs and parenthesis’s. For example,
2*((5+7)+2*(2+3))*8)+9
Write a query that will return each symbol from the string as a separate row.

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PRACTICE #7

Income tax rate is some Banana Republic is changed very often. These changes are
reflected in TAX_RATE table:
• CHANGE_DATE - date when new tax rate is set.
• RATE - tax rate in percent.

Using TAX_RATE table, report rate value for each day between min(change_date) and
max(change_date).

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OPERATORS AND PSEUDOCOLUMNS

SYS_CONNECT_BY_PATH(column, delimiter)

• SYS_CONNECT_BY_PATH – returns the path of a column value from root to node;

For each employee of the 4th level list the full path from the root manager

SELECT e.first_name, e.last_name,

sys_connect_by_path(last_name||' '||first_name,'\') AS org
FROM employees e
WHERE LEVEL = 4
CONNECT BY e.manager_id = PRIOR e.employee_id
START WITH e.employee_id = 100;

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OPERATORS AND PSEUDOCOLUMNS

CONNECT_BY_ROOT

• CONNECT_BY_ROOT - references to the hierarchy root

SELECT last_name Employee,
King CONNECT_BY_ROOT last_name head_manager,
PRIOR last_name AS direct_manager,
LEVEL-1 Pathlen,
Kochhar SYS_CONNECT_BY_PATH(last_name, '/') PATH
FROM employees
Higgins WHERE department_id = 110
CONNECT BY PRIOR employee_id = manager_id
ORDER BY Employee,Pathlen
Gietz

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PRACTICE

For each employee of the 4th level list the full path from and to the root manager

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OPERATORS AND PSEUDOCOLUMNS

CONNECT_BY_ISLEAF

• CONNECT_BY_ISLEAF – returns 1 for nodes having no children (a leaf), 0 for others

Print all employees of the 3rd level who hasn’t subordinates

SELECT last_name AS Employee,
LEVEL, SYS_CONNECT_BY_PATH(last_name, '/') Path
FROM employees
WHERE CONNECT_BY_ISLEAF = 1
AND LEVEL = 3
START WITH employee_id = 100
CONNECT BY PRIOR employee_id = manager_id
ORDER BY manager_id;

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PRACTICE

Find the manager with only one subordinate, who, in turn, has no subordinates

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ORDERING DATA

ORDER SIBLINGS BY – preserves hierarchical ordering

SELECT e.first_name, e.last_name,

sys_connect_by_path(last_name,'\') as org
FROM employees e
CONNECT BY e.manager_id = PRIOR e.employee_id
START WITH e.employee_id = 100
ORDER SIBLINGS BY first_name,last_name;

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PRACTICE

For each employee show his/her salary and summary salary of all his/her
managers. Preserve tree structure in ascending order by salary in output.

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LOOPS

Let’s assume, that some data were modified in the current table:

--set Boss for the root row

UPDATE employees
SET manager_id = 145
WHERE employee_id = 100;

SELECT e.first_name, e.last_name,

sys_connect_by_path(last_name,'\') as org
FROM employees e
CONNECT BY e.manager_id = PRIOR e.employee_id
START WITH e.employee_id = 100
ORDER SIBLINGS BY first_name,last_name;

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LOOPS

NOCYCLE parameter is used to avoid an error and to detect which row is cycling

SELECT e.first_name, e.last_name,

sys_connect_by_path(last_name,'\') as org
FROM employees e
CONNECT BY NOCYCLE e.manager_id = PRIOR e.employee_id
START WITH e.employee_id = 100
ORDER SIBLINGS BY first_name,last_name;

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LOOPS

CONNECT_BY_ISCYCLE - pseudocolumn shows which rows contain the cycle

SELECT e.first_name, e.last_name,

sys_connect_by_path(last_name,'\') as org
FROM employees e
WHERE CONNECT_BY_ISCYCLE = 1
CONNECT BY NOCYCLE e.manager_id = PRIOR e.employee_id
START WITH e.employee_id = 100
ORDER SIBLINGS BY first_name,last_name;

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USEFUL LINKS

Oracle documentation -
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14200/queries003.htm

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WITH HIERARCHYID DATA
TYPE
(MS SQL)

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Hierarchyid data type

• The hierarchyid data type is a variable length, system data type.

• A column of type hierarchyid does not automatically represent a tree. It is up to the
application to generate and assign hierarchyid values in such a way that the desired
relationship between rows is reflected in the values.
• A value of the hierarchyid data type represents a position in a tree hierarchy.

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LEVELS

The hierarchyid type logically encodes information about a single node in a hierarchy
tree by encoding the path from the root of the tree to the node. Such a path is logically
represented as a sequence of node labels of all children visited after the root.
A slash starts the representation, and a path that only visits the root is represented by a
single slash

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TO_STRING()

Use the ToString() method to convert the hierarchyid value to the logical representation
as a nvarchar(4000) data type:
SELECT CAST(Level AS nvarchar(100)) AS [Converted Level]
, Level.ToString() as [Converted Level1]
, *
FROM SimpleDemo
ORDER BY Level;

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INSERT THE ROOT OF THE HIERARCHY TREE

Use the GetRoot() method to populate this first record as the root of the hierarchy.

INSERT SimpleDemo
VALUES (hierarchyid::GetRoot(),'Earth','Planet');

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INSERT A NEW NODE

Use the GetDescendant() method, which takes two arguments.

parent.GetDescendant ( child1 , child2 )

• If parent is NULL, GetDescendant returns NULL.

• If parent is not NULL, and both child1 and child2 are NULL, GetDescendant returns a
child of parent.
• If parent and child1 are not NULL, and child2 is NULL, GetDescendant returns a child
of parent greater than child1.
• If parent and child2 are not NULL and child1 is NULL, GetDescendant returns a child of
parent less than child2.
• If parent, child1, and child2 are all not NULL, GetDescendant returns a child of parent
greater than child1 and less than child2.

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INSERT A NEW NODE

DECLARE @Root hierarchyid ;

SELECT @Root = hierarchyid::GetRoot() FROM SimpleDemo;

INSERT SimpleDemo
VALUES (@Root.GetDescendant(NULL, NULL),'Africa','Continent');
DECLARE @Root hierarchyid, @Child1 hierarchyid ,
@Child2 hierarchyid;
SELECT @Root = hierarchyid::GetRoot() FROM
SimpleDemo;
SELECT @Child1 = level FROM SimpleDemo where
Location = 'Africa';
SELECT @Child2 = level FROM SimpleDemo where
Location = 'North America';

INSERT SimpleDemo
VALUES
(@Root.GetDescendant(@Child1,
DECLARE @Root hierarchyid, @Child1 hierarchyid ; @Child2),'Australia','Continent');
SELECT @Root = hierarchyid::GetRoot() FROM SimpleDemo;
SELECT @Child1 = level FROM SimpleDemo where Location = 'Africa';

INSERT SimpleDemo
VALUES (@Root.GetDescendant(@Child1, NULL),'North America','Continent');

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FINDING THE CHILD NODES OF A PARENT

Used to test whether each node in the output has the current node as an ancestor at the
specified level
child.GetAncestor ( n )
n - an int, representing the number of levels to go up in the hierarchy.

DECLARE @Node hierarchyid;

SELECT @Node = hierarchyid::GetRoot() FROM SimpleDemo;

--continents (children)
select *, Level.ToString()
from SimpleDemo
WHERE Level.GetAncestor(1) = @Node ;

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LEVEL IN THE HIERARCHY

Returns an integer that represents the depth of the node this in the tree.
node.GetLevel ( )

select *, Level.ToString()
from SimpleDemo
WHERE Level.GetLevel() = 2;

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USEFUL LINKS

MS SQL documentation
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/data-types/hierarchyid-data-type-method-
reference?view=sql-server-2017

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THANK YOU!

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