Building a TreeView ResultSet with SQL Server 2005
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by Ameet Phadnis
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CTE

So, what is CTE?  It stands for Common Table Expression.  It allows the code to reference itself. This assists us in creating recursive CTE.  The initial CTE is repeatedly executed and it returns subsets of data.  This will continue on until the complete dataset is returned.

CTE Structure

The CTE Structure will look like the following.

Listing 1

With <CTE Name>(Column1, column2,…, column n)
AS
(
<Query Definition>- Anchor Member 
Union All
<Query Definition> - Uses the <CTE Name> for recursive member
)
SELECT *
FROM <CTE Name>

There are three elements to recursive CTE.

·         Invocation of the routine: As shown above, the first invocation is with the anchor query definition.  There can be one anchor query definition or multiple, but all anchor query definitions should be positioned before the Recursive member definition.  The anchor query definitions can be joined using Union All, Union, Except and Intersect.  To join the Recursive Member you need to use the Union All operator.

·         Recursive Invocation of the routine: This includes one or more CTE query definitions that reference the CTE itself.  The Query definitions need to be joined by Union All Operator.

·         Termination Check: Recursion stops when no rows are returned from the previous invocation.

Let us consider the CTE Structure code shown above.  How does the execution really occur in this scenario?

1.      The CTE Expression is split into anchor query members and recursive members.

2.      Run the anchor query and create a base result set.

3.      Run the recursive member with the previous output as input and generate the next output.

4.      Repeat the above step until the result set output returns empty.

5.      Return the complete resultset.  This is union of all outputs.

Table structure for hierarchy

Consider the table structure we have for our example.  We are going to a create tree structure for the departments.

 

tblDepartments

DepartmentID

DepartmentName

ParentDepartmentID

 

The sample data is as follows.

 

DepartmentID

DepartmentName

ParentDepartmentID

1

HR

<NULL>

2

IT

<NULL>

3

Networking

2

4

Development

2

5

ASP.NET Development

4

6

J2EE Development

4

7

C#.NET

5

8

VB.NET

5


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User Comments

Title: Hierarchical structure   
Name: Venkat
Date: 2008-12-22 8:08:36 AM
Comment:
Before getting this site
I was much confused to solve query in Hierarchical.
its very helpful to all...
thanks....
Title: Works like a dream!   
Name: Per
Date: 2008-12-20 1:51:09 AM
Comment:
Just make sure you have an appropriate WHERE clause for your first 'anchor query'. In the example above I gather it should be:
'... 0 as HLevel FROM tblDepartments WHERE ParentDepartmentID is null'
instead of:
'... 0 as HLevel FROM tblDepartments'
Title: Thanks   
Name: Raheel
Date: 2008-05-11 11:50:21 PM
Comment:
Nieece ... For a moment I though I should leave IT ...Thanks Ameet ..and Thanks Google
Title: SQL/XML format string   
Name: Jayeff_Land
Date: 2008-04-08 1:57:53 PM
Comment:
I have found my own answer on the web. If anybody is interested : http://blogs.conchango.com/christianwade/archive/2006/09/20/SQL-Server-Standard-_2D00_-Recursive-Hierarchies-to-XML.aspx
Title: SQL/XML format string   
Name: Jayeff_Land
Date: 2008-04-08 1:55:04 PM
Comment:
I have been seaching for a really good example for that! It was really simple and helpful.
Is it possible to transfer the result in a XML format string?
Title: Very Helpful   
Name: Felipe Bossolani
Date: 2007-03-20 11:08:18 AM
Comment:
Thanks,
Sounds Perfect and Works PERFECT!
=)
Title: Cannot get the subcategories under the main ones   
Name: Jovanky De Los Santos
Date: 2007-03-16 10:35:03 AM
Comment:
My Table Structure

Category_ID Number
Parent_ID Number <----Category_ID reports to this colum
Category_Name Varchar....

MY QUERY <---I replaced the query above with my data
=============================
WITH Hierarchy(Category_ID, Category_Name, Parent_ID, HLevel)
AS
(
SELECT Category_ID, Category_Name, Parent_ID, 0 as HLevel FROM Dir_Categories
UNION ALL
SELECT SubCategory.Category_ID
, SubCategory.Category_Name,
SubCategory.Parent_ID,
HLevel + 1
FROM Dir_Categories SubCategory
INNER JOIN Hierarchy ParentCategory
ON SubCategory.Parent_ID = ParentCategory.Category_ID )
SELECT Category_ID,
Category_Name = Replicate('__', HLevel) + Category_Name,
Parent_ID,
HLevel
FROM Hierarchy

My OUTPUT============

All the categories under reporting to Parent_ID 0 or continuous, then the ones reporting to 1 and so fourth. Subcategories are not showing within their main categories. I AM GOING NUTS WITH THIS.

Can you help me please?
Title: What about employees   
Name: Rodney
Date: 2007-01-25 8:58:00 AM
Comment:
Hey all,
How would you include the actual employees and where they would appear in the tree? Would you need another table or could I add fields to the table presented in this article?

thanks,
Rodney
Title: Building a TreeView ResultSet with SQL Server 2005   
Name: Pavel Kubalak
Date: 2007-01-08 12:12:05 PM
Comment:
Very helpful.
Big thanks
Title: Building a TreeView ResultSet with SQL Server 2005   
Name: Piers Lawson
Date: 2006-10-27 12:23:15 PM
Comment:
Whilst this new functionality lets you get your result via recurssion, a better solution (that is more efficient, doesn't have the parent NULL issue and works in any database) is to store your heirarchy using Nested Sets as advocated by Joe Celko. One simple query returns all the information you need.
Title: mr   
Name: Pierre Bakker
Date: 2006-10-24 3:42:30 AM
Comment:
Hello,

I think you missed an IS NULL on the parentID? If I execute the query in your example it returns all records on all HLevels. I think you need to add a WHERE Clause to the query definition
SELECT
DepartmentID,
DepartmentName,
ParentDepartmentID,
0 as HLevel
FROM
tblDepartments
-- extra WHERE
WHERE
ParentDepartmentID is null.

This way you start at the root of the tree. Am I right?

grtz Pierre Bakker
Title: Building a TreeView ResultSet with SQL Server 2005   
Name: Sanket Terdal
Date: 2006-10-04 8:55:44 AM
Comment:
Very useful article.






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