Count without using functions (like count) oracle - sql

Question

I have two tables:
TABLE A :
CREATE TABLE z_ostan ( id NUMBER PRIMARY KEY,
name VARCHAR2(30) NOT NULL CHECK (upper(name)=name)
);
TABLE B:
CREATE TABLE z_shahr ( id NUMBER PRIMARY KEY,
name VARCHAR2(30) NOT NULL CHECK (upper(name)=name),
ref_ostan NUMBER,
CONSTRAINT fk_ref_ostan FOREIGN KEY (ref_ostan) REFERENCES z_ostan(id)
);
How can I find the second and third place "id" from -Table A- The least used table B in the table? Without using predefined functions like "count()"

Answer 1

This only processes existing references to Table A.
Updated for oracle (used 12c)
Without using any aggregate or window functions:
Sample data for Table: tblb
+----+---------+---------+
| id | name | tbla_id |
+----+---------+---------+
| 1 | TBLB_01 | 1 |
| 2 | TBLB_02 | 1 |
| 3 | TBLB_03 | 1 |
| 4 | TBLB_04 | 1 | 4 rows
| 5 | TBLB_05 | 2 |
| 6 | TBLB_06 | 2 |
| 7 | TBLB_07 | 2 | 3 rows
| 8 | TBLB_08 | 3 |
| 9 | TBLB_09 | 3 |
| 10 | TBLB_10 | 3 |
| 11 | TBLB_11 | 3 |
| 12 | TBLB_12 | 3 |
| 13 | TBLB_13 | 3 | 6 rows
| 14 | TBLB_14 | 4 |
| 15 | TBLB_15 | 4 |
| 16 | TBLB_16 | 4 | 3 rows
| 17 | TBLB_17 | 5 | 1 row
| 18 | TBLB_18 | 6 |
| 19 | TBLB_19 | 6 | 2 rows
| 20 | TBLB_20 | 7 | 1 row
+----+---------+---------+
There are many ways to express this logic.
Step by step with CTE terms.
The intent is (for each set of tbla_id rows in tblb)
generate a row_number (n) for the rows in each partition.
We would normally use window functions for this.
But I assume these are not allowed.
Use this row_number (n) to determine the count of rows in each tbla_id partition.
To find that count per partition, find the last row in each partition (from step 1).
Order the results of step 2 by n of these last rows.
Choose the 2nd and 3rd row of this result
Done.
WITH first AS ( -- Find the first row per tbla_id
SELECT t1.*
FROM tblb t1
LEFT JOIN tblb t2
ON t1.id > t2.id
AND t1.tbla_id = t2.tbla_id
WHERE t2.id IS NULL
)
, rnum (id, name, tbla_id, n) AS ( -- Generate a row_number (n) for each tbla_id partition
SELECT f.*, 1 FROM first f UNION ALL
SELECT n.id, n.name, n.tbla_id, c.n+1
FROM rnum c
JOIN tblb n
ON c.tbla_id = n.tbla_id
AND c.id < n.id
LEFT JOIN tblb n2
ON n.tbla_id = n2.tbla_id
AND c.id < n2.id
AND n.id > n2.id
WHERE n2.id IS NULL
)
, last AS ( -- Find the last row in each partition to obtain the count of tbla_id references
SELECT t1.*
FROM rnum t1
LEFT JOIN rnum t2
ON t1.id < t2.id
AND t1.tbla_id = t2.tbla_id
WHERE t2.id IS NULL
)
SELECT * FROM last
ORDER BY n, tbla_id OFFSET 1 ROWS FETCH NEXT 2 ROWS ONLY
;
Final Result, where n is the count of references to tbla:
+------+---------+---------+------+
| id | name | tbla_id | n |
+------+---------+---------+------+
| 20 | TBLB_20 | 7 | 1 |
| 19 | TBLB_19 | 6 | 2 |
+------+---------+---------+------+
Some intermediate results...
last CTE term result. The 2nd and 3rd rows of this become the final result.
+------+---------+---------+------+
| id | name | tbla_id | n |
+------+---------+---------+------+
| 17 | TBLB_17 | 5 | 1 |
| 20 | TBLB_20 | 7 | 1 |
| 19 | TBLB_19 | 6 | 2 |
| 7 | TBLB_07 | 2 | 3 |
| 16 | TBLB_16 | 4 | 3 |
| 4 | TBLB_04 | 1 | 4 |
| 13 | TBLB_13 | 3 | 6 |
+------+---------+---------+------+
rnum CTE term result. This provides the row_number over tbla_id partitions ordered by id
+------+---------+---------+------+
| id | name | tbla_id | n |
+------+---------+---------+------+
| 1 | TBLB_01 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | TBLB_02 | 1 | 2 |
| 3 | TBLB_03 | 1 | 3 |
| 4 | TBLB_04 | 1 | 4 |
| 5 | TBLB_05 | 2 | 1 |
| 6 | TBLB_06 | 2 | 2 |
| 7 | TBLB_07 | 2 | 3 |
| 8 | TBLB_08 | 3 | 1 |
| 9 | TBLB_09 | 3 | 2 |
| 10 | TBLB_10 | 3 | 3 |
| 11 | TBLB_11 | 3 | 4 |
| 12 | TBLB_12 | 3 | 5 |
| 13 | TBLB_13 | 3 | 6 |
| 14 | TBLB_14 | 4 | 1 |
| 15 | TBLB_15 | 4 | 2 |
| 16 | TBLB_16 | 4 | 3 |
| 17 | TBLB_17 | 5 | 1 |
| 18 | TBLB_18 | 6 | 1 |
| 19 | TBLB_19 | 6 | 2 |
| 20 | TBLB_20 | 7 | 1 |
+------+---------+---------+------+
There are a few other ways to tackle this problem in just SQL.