Give the table structure, as something like:
ID ParentID Name
1 NULL A root
2 NULL Another root
3 1 Child of 1
4 3 Grandchild of 1
5 4 Great grandchild of 1
6 1 Child of 1
7 NULL Another root
8 7 Child of 6
I am looking for an elegant (if possible) solution for a single Sql statement/function that would return all data in the table when given an ID = 1
So my result would look something like:
ID ParentID Name
1 NULL A root
3 1 Child of 1
4 3 Grandchild of 1
5 4 Great grandchild of 1
6 1 Child of 1
I've seen similar questions on SO though for the most part they only seem to be looking at a given number of levels.
This structure can, ultimately, be limitless - folder with children, with many other children
Is this possible? If so, how would I accomplish it?
So referencing this answer:
Sql Server CTE Parent Child recursive
Here's a working version with your schema:
Table Creation Script
CREATE TABLE YOUR_TABLE
([ID] int, [ParentID] int, [Name] varchar(21))
;
INSERT INTO YOUR_TABLE
([ID], [ParentID], [Name])
VALUES
(1, NULL, 'A root'),
(2, NULL, 'Another root'),
(3, 1, 'Child of 1'),
(4, 3, 'Grandchild of 1'),
(5, 4, 'Great grandchild of 1'),
(6, 1, 'Child of 1'),
(7, NULL, 'Another root'),
(8, 7, 'Child of 6')
;
Recursive CTE
DECLARE @ID INT = 1
;WITH ParentChildCTE
AS (
SELECT ID, ParentId, Name
FROM YOUR_TABLE
WHERE Id = @ID
UNION ALL
SELECT T1.ID, T1.ParentId, T1.Name
FROM YOUR_TABLE T1
INNER JOIN ParentChildCTE T ON T.ID = T1.ParentID
WHERE T1.ParentID IS NOT NULL
)
SELECT *
FROM ParentChildCTE
The key part is in the CTE
creation where the UNION ALL
joins back on to the result set, joining ID
to ParentId
, which doesn't limit the number of level.
What you need is a recursive query. This Microsoft Technet example does exactly what you want, though in the example, we're going for a hierarchy of employees, not folders.
From the linked page:
-- Create an Employee table.
CREATE TABLE dbo.MyEmployees
(
EmployeeID smallint NOT NULL,
FirstName nvarchar(30) NOT NULL,
LastName nvarchar(40) NOT NULL,
Title nvarchar(50) NOT NULL,
DeptID smallint NOT NULL,
ManagerID int NULL,
CONSTRAINT PK_EmployeeID PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (EmployeeID ASC)
);
-- Populate the table with values.
INSERT INTO dbo.MyEmployees VALUES
(1, N'Ken', N'Sánchez', N'Chief Executive Officer',16,NULL)
,(273, N'Brian', N'Welcker', N'Vice President of Sales',3,1)
,(274, N'Stephen', N'Jiang', N'North American Sales Manager',3,273)
,(275, N'Michael', N'Blythe', N'Sales Representative',3,274)
,(276, N'Linda', N'Mitchell', N'Sales Representative',3,274)
,(285, N'Syed', N'Abbas', N'Pacific Sales Manager',3,273)
,(286, N'Lynn', N'Tsoflias', N'Sales Representative',3,285)
,(16, N'David',N'Bradley', N'Marketing Manager', 4, 273)
,(23, N'Mary', N'Gibson', N'Marketing Specialist', 4, 16);
and then
WITH DirectReports (ManagerID, EmployeeID, Title, DeptID, Level)
AS
(
-- Anchor member definition
SELECT e.ManagerID, e.EmployeeID, e.Title, edh.DepartmentID,
0 AS Level
FROM dbo.MyEmployees AS e
INNER JOIN HumanResources.EmployeeDepartmentHistory AS edh
ON e.EmployeeID = edh.BusinessEntityID AND edh.EndDate IS NULL
WHERE ManagerID IS NULL
UNION ALL
-- Recursive member definition
SELECT e.ManagerID, e.EmployeeID, e.Title, edh.DepartmentID,
Level + 1
FROM dbo.MyEmployees AS e
INNER JOIN HumanResources.EmployeeDepartmentHistory AS edh
ON e.EmployeeID = edh.BusinessEntityID AND edh.EndDate IS NULL
INNER JOIN DirectReports AS d
ON e.ManagerID = d.EmployeeID
)
-- Statement that executes the CTE
SELECT ManagerID, EmployeeID, Title, DeptID, Level
FROM DirectReports
INNER JOIN HumanResources.Department AS dp
ON DirectReports.DeptID = dp.DepartmentID
WHERE dp.GroupName = N'Sales and Marketing' OR Level = 0;
GO
and your result is
ManagerID EmployeeID Title Level
--------- ---------- ----------------------------- ------
NULL 1 Chief Executive Officer 0
1 273 Vice President of Sales 1
273 16 Marketing Manager 2
273 274 North American Sales Manager 2
273 285 Pacific Sales Manager 2
16 23 Marketing Specialist 3
274 275 Sales Representative 3
274 276 Sales Representative 3
285 286 Sales Representative 3