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Recursive Cte Questions

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Praveen Reddy Daka
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4 views7 pages

Recursive Cte Questions

Uploaded by

Praveen Reddy Daka
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Recursive CTE

A Recursive CTE (Common Table Expression) is a way to repeatedly execute a query until a
condition is met. It’s commonly used for hierarchical data like organizational structures or
tree-like relationships.​
​
​
How It Works:

1.​ Anchor Query → The base case that starts the recursion.​

2.​ Recursive Query → Calls itself to fetch related data.​

3.​ Termination Condition → Stops when no more rows are returned.

Simple Example: Generating Numbers from 1 to 5

WITH Numbers AS (

-- Anchor Query (Starting point)

SELECT 1 AS num

UNION ALL

-- Recursive Query (Keeps adding 1 to num)

SELECT num + 1 FROM Numbers WHERE num < 5

SELECT * FROM Numbers;

​
Breakdown:

1.​ First, 1 is selected.


2.​ Then, 1 + 1 = 2, 2 + 1 = 3, … up to 5.
3.​ Stops when num reaches 5.

This is like a loop in SQL without using a traditional loop.


Some questions on same:- ​
​
Basic Questions

1.​ Write a recursive CTE to generate numbers from 1 to 10.​

2.​ Use a recursive CTE to calculate the sum of numbers from 1 to N (e.g., N = 10).​

3.​ Create a recursive CTE to print the Fibonacci series up to 10 terms.​

Medium Questions

4.​ Given an employee table with id, name, and manager_id, write a recursive CTE to
display the hierarchy (employee → manager).​

5.​ Find all ancestors of a given employee in an organizational structure.​

6.​ Given a directory structure with folder_id and parent_folder_id, write a recursive
CTE to retrieve the full folder hierarchy.​

Hard Questions

7.​ Given a tree-like structure with id, name, parent_id, find the depth of each node
using a recursive CTE.​

8.​ Implement a recursive CTE to flatten a JSON-like hierarchy stored in a database table.​

9.​ Given a Graph table with source and destination columns, write a recursive CTE to
find all possible paths from a given starting node.

​
​
Solutions of above questions ​
​
Basic Questions

1. Generate numbers from 1 to 10

WITH Numbers AS (

SELECT 1 AS num

UNION ALL

SELECT num + 1 FROM Numbers WHERE num < 10

SELECT * FROM Numbers;

✅ Explanation: Starts from 1 and keeps adding 1 until it reaches 10.


2. Sum of numbers from 1 to N (e.g., N = 10)

WITH SumCTE AS (

SELECT 1 AS num, 1 AS sum_val

UNION ALL

SELECT num + 1, sum_val + (num + 1) FROM SumCTE WHERE num < 10

SELECT MAX(sum_val) AS TotalSum FROM SumCTE;

✅ Explanation: Keeps adding numbers until 10 and returns the final sum.
3. Fibonacci Series (first 10 terms)
WITH Fibonacci AS (

SELECT 0 AS num1, 1 AS num2, 1 AS term

UNION ALL

SELECT num2, num1 + num2, term + 1 FROM Fibonacci WHERE term < 10

SELECT num1 FROM Fibonacci;

✅ Explanation: Uses (previous + second previous) formula until 10 terms.

Medium Questions

4. Employee Hierarchy (employee → manager)

WITH EmployeeHierarchy AS (

SELECT id, name, manager_id, 1 AS level

FROM Employee

WHERE manager_id IS NULL -- Fetch top-level managers

UNION ALL

SELECT e.id, e.name, e.manager_id, eh.level + 1

FROM Employee e

JOIN EmployeeHierarchy eh ON e.manager_id = eh.id

SELECT * FROM EmployeeHierarchy ORDER BY level;

✅ Explanation: Starts from top-level managers and recursively fetches subordinates.


5. Find all ancestors of a given employee

WITH Ancestors AS (

SELECT id, name, manager_id FROM Employee WHERE id = 10 -- Change


ID as needed

UNION ALL

SELECT e.id, e.name, e.manager_id FROM Employee e

JOIN Ancestors a ON e.id = a.manager_id

SELECT * FROM Ancestors;

✅ Explanation: Starts from the given employee and moves upward in hierarchy.
6. Retrieve full folder hierarchy

WITH FolderHierarchy AS (

SELECT folder_id, parent_folder_id FROM Folders WHERE


parent_folder_id IS NULL

UNION ALL

SELECT f.folder_id, f.parent_folder_id

FROM Folders f

JOIN FolderHierarchy fh ON f.parent_folder_id = fh.folder_id

SELECT * FROM FolderHierarchy;


✅ Explanation: Fetches folders recursively, similar to a tree traversal.

Hard Questions

7. Find depth of each node in a tree-like structure

WITH NodeDepth AS (

SELECT id, name, parent_id, 1 AS depth

FROM TreeTable WHERE parent_id IS NULL

UNION ALL

SELECT t.id, t.name, t.parent_id, nd.depth + 1

FROM TreeTable t

JOIN NodeDepth nd ON t.parent_id = nd.id

SELECT * FROM NodeDepth;

✅ Explanation: Starts from root nodes and increments depth for child nodes.
8. Flatten JSON-like hierarchy in a table

WITH FlattenedHierarchy AS (

SELECT id, parent_id, name, CAST(name AS VARCHAR(MAX)) AS


full_path

FROM HierarchyTable WHERE parent_id IS NULL

UNION ALL

SELECT h.id, h.parent_id, h.name, CONCAT(fh.full_path, ' > ',


h.name)
FROM HierarchyTable h

JOIN FlattenedHierarchy fh ON h.parent_id = fh.id

SELECT * FROM FlattenedHierarchy;

✅ Explanation: Constructs a breadcrumb-style path for hierarchical records.


9. Find all paths in a graph (source → destination)

WITH RecursiveGraph AS (

SELECT source, destination, CAST(source AS VARCHAR(MAX)) AS path

FROM Graph WHERE source = 'A' -- Change source node

UNION ALL

SELECT g.source, g.destination, CONCAT(rg.path, ' -> ',


g.destination)

FROM Graph g

JOIN RecursiveGraph rg ON g.source = rg.destination

SELECT * FROM RecursiveGraph;

✅ Explanation: Finds all possible paths in a graph starting from node 'A'.

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