Posts tagged recursive subquery factoring
Factorial in Oracle SQL – using both new Recursive Subquery and classic Connect By approach
5I regularly teach a masterclass on Oracle SQL. One of the topics I explore in depth is the use of the CONNECT BY query style to perform not just hierarchical queries but also networking or even generic recursive SQL. In Oracle Database 11g, the recursive subquery was formally introduced, the SQL Standard’s approach to this style of querying. The Recursive Subquery even stronger suggest recursive operations to be performed of course, but classic connect by can do that job as well.
One archetypical example of a recursive operation is the calculation of a factorial: n! = 1* 2 * 3 *…. * (n-1) * n.
In this short post I will show both the new, straightforward 11g based solution as well as the classic approach with CONNECT BY – that may not looks as recursive, but still very much is.
Oracle RDBMS 11gR2 – new style hierarchical querying using Recursive Subquery Factoring
Oracle Database 11g Release 2 introduces the successor to the good old Connect By based hierarchical querying, called Recursive Subquery Factoring. The basics are described in a previous article: http://technology.amis.nl/blog/6104/oracle-rdbms-11gr2-goodbye-connect-by-or-the-end-of-hierarchical-querying-as-we-know-it. This article will show some additional examples of using this recursive subquery factoring syntax.
The essence of this recursiveness: the subquery consists of two queries unioned together. The first query returns the root-nodes, the starting points in the tree or network. The second query is used to continually retrieve the next step or level: it refers to the subquery itself and finds the next node level based on the levels (root and zero or more previously retrieved levels) already retrieved by the subquery.
In code:
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