I am trying to push the last value of a cumulative dataset forward to present time.
Initialise test data:
drop table if exists test_table;
create table test_table
as select data_date::date, floor(random() * 10) as data_value
from
generate_series('2021-08-25'::date, '2021-08-31'::date, '1 day') data_date;
The above test data produces something like this:
data_date data_value cumulative_value
2021-08-25 1 1
2021-08-26 7 8
2021-08-27 8 16
2021-08-28 7 23
2021-08-29 2 25
2021-08-30 2 27
2021-08-31 7 34
What I wish to do, is push the last data value (2021-08-31 7) forward to present time. For example, say today's date was 2021-09-03, I would want the result to be something like:
data_date data_value cumulative_value
2021-08-25 1 1
2021-08-26 7 8
2021-08-27 8 16
2021-08-28 7 23
2021-08-29 2 25
2021-08-30 2 27
2021-08-31 7 34
2021-09-01 7 41
2021-09-02 7 48
2021-09-03 7 55
You need to get the value of the last date in the table. Common table expression is a good way to do that:
with cte as (
select data_value as last_val
from test_table
order by data_date desc
limit 1)
select
gen_date::date as data_date,
coalesce(data_value, last_val) as data_value,
sum(coalesce(data_value, last_val)) over (order by gen_date) as cumulative_sum
from generate_series('2021-08-25'::date, '2021-09-03', '1 day') as gen_date
left join test_table on gen_date = data_date
cross join cte
Test it in db<>fiddle.
You may use union and a scalar subquery to find the latest value of data_value for for the new rows. cumulative_value is re-evaluated.
select *, sum(data_value) over (rows between unbounded preceding and current row) as cumulative_value
from
(
select data_date, data_value from test_table
UNION all
select rd, (select data_value from test_table where data_date = '2021-08-31')
from generate_series('2021-09-01'::date, '2021-09-03', '1 day') rd
) t
order by data_date;
And here it is a bit smarter w/o fixed date literals.
with cte(latest_date) as (select max(data_date) from test_table)
select *, sum(data_value) over (rows between unbounded preceding and current row) as cumulative_value
from
(
select data_date, data_value from test_table
UNION ALL
select rd::date, (select data_value from test_table, cte where data_date = latest_date)
from generate_series((select latest_date from cte) + 1, CURRENT_DATE, '1 day') rd
) t
order by data_date;
SQL Fiddle here.
I have a table of users and how many events they fired on a given date:
DATE
USERID
EVENTS
2021-08-27
1
5
2021-07-25
1
7
2021-07-23
2
3
2021-07-20
3
9
2021-06-22
1
9
2021-05-05
1
4
2021-05-05
2
2
2021-05-05
3
6
2021-05-05
4
8
2021-05-05
5
1
I want to create a table showing number of active users for each date with active user being defined as someone who has fired an event on the given date or in any of the preceding 30 days.
DATE
ACTIVE_USERS
2021-08-27
1
2021-07-25
3
2021-07-23
2
2021-07-20
2
2021-06-22
1
2021-05-05
5
I tried the following query which returned only the users who were active on the specified date:
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT USERID), DATE
FROM table
WHERE DATE >= (CURRENT_DATE() - interval '30 days')
GROUP BY 2 ORDER BY 2 DESC;
I also tried using a window function with rows between but seems to end up getting the same result:
SELECT
DATE,
SUM(ACTIVE_USERS) AS ACTIVE_USERS
FROM
(
SELECT
DATE,
CASE
WHEN SUM(EVENTS) OVER (PARTITION BY USERID ORDER BY DATE ROWS BETWEEN 30 PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW) >= 1 THEN 1
ELSE 0
END AS ACTIVE_USERS
FROM table
)
GROUP BY 1
ORDER BY 1
I'm using SQL:ANSI on Snowflake. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
This is tricky to do as window functions -- because count(distinct) is not permitted. You can use a self-join:
select t1.date, count(distinct t2.userid)
from table t join
table t2
on t2.date <= t.date and
t2.date > t.date - interval '30 day'
group by t1.date;
However, that can be expensive. One solution is to "unpivot" the data. That is, do an incremental count per user of going "in" and "out" of active states and then do a cumulative sum:
with d as ( -- calculate the dates with "ins" and "outs"
select user, date, +1 as inc
from table
union all
select user, date + interval '30 day', -1 as inc
from table
),
d2 as ( -- accumulate to get the net actives per day
select date, user, sum(inc) as change_on_day,
sum(sum(inc)) over (partition by user order by date) as running_inc
from d
group by date, user
),
d3 as ( -- summarize into active periods
select user, min(date) as start_date, max(date) as end_date
from (select d2.*,
sum(case when running_inc = 0 then 1 else 0 end) over (partition by user order by date) as active_period
from d2
) d2
where running_inc > 0
group by user
)
select d.date, count(d3.user)
from (select distinct date from table) d left join
d3
on d.date >= start_date and d.date < end_date
group by d.date;
I have dates and some value, I would like to sum values within 7-day cycle starting from the first date.
date value
01-01-2021 1
02-01-2021 1
05-01-2021 1
07-01-2021 1
10-01-2021 1
12-01-2021 1
13-01-2021 1
16-01-2021 1
18-01-2021 1
22-01-2021 1
23-01-2021 1
30-01-2021 1
this is my input data with 4 groups to see what groups will create the 7-day cycle.
It should start with first date and sum all values within 7 days after first date included.
then start a new group with next day plus anothe 7 days, 10-01 till 17-01 and then again new group from 18-01 till 25-01 and so on.
so the output will be
group1 4
group2 4
group3 3
group4 1
with match_recognize would be easy current_day < first_day + 7 as a condition for the pattern but please don't use match_recognize clause as solution !!!
One approach is a recursive CTE:
with tt as (
select dte, value, row_number() over (order by dte) as seqnum
from t
),
cte (dte, value, seqnum, firstdte) as (
select tt.dte, tt.value, tt.seqnum, tt.dte
from tt
where seqnum = 1
union all
select tt.dte, tt.value, tt.seqnum,
(case when tt.dte < cte.firstdte + interval '7' day then cte.firstdte else tt.dte end)
from cte join
tt
on tt.seqnum = cte.seqnum + 1
)
select firstdte, sum(value)
from cte
group by firstdte
order by firstdte;
This identifies the groups by the first date. You can use row_number() over (order by firstdte) if you want a number.
Here is a db<>fiddle.
How can we find X consecutive dates (using by hour) that meet a condition?
EDIT: here is the SQL fiddle http://sqlfiddle.com/#!17/44928/1
Example:
Find 3 consecutive dates where aa < 2 and bb < 6 and cc < 7
Given this table called weather:
timestamp
aa
bb
cc
01/01/2000 00:00
1
5
5
01/01/2000 01:00
5
5
5
01/01/2000 02:00
1
5
5
01/01/2000 03:00
1
5
5
01/01/2000 04:00
1
5
5
01/01/2000 05:00
1
5
5
Answer should return the 3 records from 02:00, 03:00, 04:00.
How can we do this in Ruby on Rails - or directly in SQL if that is better?
I started working on a method based on this answer:
Detect consecutive dates ranges using SQL
def consecutive_dates
the_query = "WITH t AS (
SELECT timestamp d,ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY timestamp) i
FROM #d
GROUP BY timestamp
)
SELECT MIN(d),MAX(d)
FROM t
GROUP BY DATEDIFF(hour,i,d)"
ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute(the_query)
end
But I was unable to get it working.
Assuming that you have one row every hour, then an easy way to get the first hour where this occurs uses lead():
select t.*
from (select t.*,
lead(timestamp, 2) over (order by timestamp) as timestamp_2
from t
where aa < 2 and bb < 6 and cc < 7
) t
where timestamp_2 = timestamp + interval '2 hour';
This filters on the conditions and looks at the rows two rows ahead. If it is two hours ahead, then three rows in a row match the conditions. Note: The above will return both 2020-01-01 02:00 and 2020-01-01 03:00.
From your question you only seem to want the earliest. To handle that, use lag() as well:
select t.*
from (select t.*,
lag(timestamp) over (order by timestamp) as prev_timestamp
lead(timestamp, 2) over (order by timestamp) as timestamp_2
from t
where aa < 2 and bb < 6 and cc < 7
) t
where timestamp_2 = timestamp + interval '2 hour' and
(prev_timestamp is null or prev_timestamp < timestamp - interval '1' hour);
You can generate the additional hours use generate_series() if you really need the original rows:
select t.timestamp + n.n * interval '1 hour', aa, bb, cc
from (select t.*,
lead(timestamp, 2) over (order by timestamp) as timestamp_2
from t
where aa < 2 and bb < 6 and cc < 7
) t cross join lateral
generate_series(0, 2) n
where timestamp_2 = timestamp + interval '2 hour';
Your data seems to have precise timestamps based on the question, so the timestamp equalities will work. If the real data has more fuzziness, then the queries can be tweaked to take this into account.
)This is a gaps-and-islands problem. Islands are adjacent records that match the condition, and you want islands that are at least 3 records long.
Here is one approach that uses a window count that increments every time value that does not match the condition is met to define the groups. We can then count how many rows there are in each group, and use that information to filter.
select *
from (
select t.*, count(*) over(partition by a, grp) cnt
from (
select t.*,
count(*) filter(where b <= 4) over(partition by a order by timestamp) grp
from mytable t
) t
) t
where cnt >= 3
There is a table with visits data:
uid (INT) | created_at (DATETIME)
I want to find how many days in a row a user has visited our app. So for instance:
SELECT DISTINCT DATE(created_at) AS d FROM visits WHERE uid = 123
will return:
d
------------
2012-04-28
2012-04-29
2012-04-30
2012-05-03
2012-05-04
There are 5 records and two intervals - 3 days (28 - 30 Apr) and 2 days (3 - 4 May).
My question is how to find the maximum number of days that a user has visited the app in a row (3 days in the example). Tried to find a suitable function in the SQL docs, but with no success. Am I missing something?
UPD:
Thank you guys for your answers! Actually, I'm working with vertica analytics database (http://vertica.com/), however this is a very rare solution and only a few people have experience with it. Although it supports SQL-99 standard.
Well, most of solutions work with slight modifications. Finally I created my own version of query:
-- returns starts of the vitit series
SELECT t1.d as s FROM testing t1
LEFT JOIN testing t2 ON DATE(t2.d) = DATE(TIMESTAMPADD('day', -1, t1.d))
WHERE t2.d is null GROUP BY t1.d
s
---------------------
2012-04-28 01:00:00
2012-05-03 01:00:00
-- returns end of the vitit series
SELECT t1.d as f FROM testing t1
LEFT JOIN testing t2 ON DATE(t2.d) = DATE(TIMESTAMPADD('day', 1, t1.d))
WHERE t2.d is null GROUP BY t1.d
f
---------------------
2012-04-30 01:00:00
2012-05-04 01:00:00
So now only what we need to do is to join them somehow, for instance by row index.
SELECT s, f, DATEDIFF(day, s, f) + 1 as seq FROM (
SELECT t1.d as s, ROW_NUMBER() OVER () as o1 FROM testing t1
LEFT JOIN testing t2 ON DATE(t2.d) = DATE(TIMESTAMPADD('day', -1, t1.d))
WHERE t2.d is null GROUP BY t1.d
) tbl1 LEFT JOIN (
SELECT t1.d as f, ROW_NUMBER() OVER () as o2 FROM testing t1
LEFT JOIN testing t2 ON DATE(t2.d) = DATE(TIMESTAMPADD('day', 1, t1.d))
WHERE t2.d is null GROUP BY t1.d
) tbl2 ON o1 = o2
Sample output:
s | f | seq
---------------------+---------------------+-----
2012-04-28 01:00:00 | 2012-04-30 01:00:00 | 3
2012-05-03 01:00:00 | 2012-05-04 01:00:00 | 2
Another approach, the shortest, do a self-join:
with grouped_result as
(
select
sr.d,
sum((fr.d is null)::int) over(order by sr.d) as group_number
from tbl sr
left join tbl fr on sr.d = fr.d + interval '1 day'
)
select d, group_number, count(d) over m as consecutive_days
from grouped_result
window m as (partition by group_number)
Output:
d | group_number | consecutive_days
---------------------+--------------+------------------
2012-04-28 08:00:00 | 1 | 3
2012-04-29 08:00:00 | 1 | 3
2012-04-30 08:00:00 | 1 | 3
2012-05-03 08:00:00 | 2 | 2
2012-05-04 08:00:00 | 2 | 2
(5 rows)
Live test: http://www.sqlfiddle.com/#!1/93789/1
sr = second row, fr = first row ( or perhaps previous row? ツ ). Basically we are doing a back tracking, it's a simulated lag on database that doesn't support LAG (Postgres supports LAG, but the solution is very long, as windowing doesn't support nested windowing). So in this query, we uses a hybrid approach, simulate LAG via join, then use SUM windowing against it, this produces group number
UPDATE
Forgot to put the final query, the query above illustrate the underpinnings of group numbering, need to morph that into this:
with grouped_result as
(
select
sr.d,
sum((fr.d is null)::int) over(order by sr.d) as group_number
from tbl sr
left join tbl fr on sr.d = fr.d + interval '1 day'
)
select min(d) as starting_date, max(d) as end_date, count(d) as consecutive_days
from grouped_result
group by group_number
-- order by consecutive_days desc limit 1
STARTING_DATE END_DATE CONSECUTIVE_DAYS
April, 28 2012 08:00:00-0700 April, 30 2012 08:00:00-0700 3
May, 03 2012 08:00:00-0700 May, 04 2012 08:00:00-0700 2
UPDATE
I know why my other solution that uses window function became long, it became long on my attempt to illustrate the logic of group numbering and counting over the group. If I'd cut to the chase like in my MySql approach, that windowing function could be shorter. Having said that, here's my old windowing function approach, albeit better now:
with headers as
(
select
d,lag(d) over m is null or d - lag(d) over m <> interval '1 day' as header
from tbl
window m as (order by d)
)
,sequence_group as
(
select d, sum(header::int) over (order by d) as group_number
from headers
)
select min(d) as starting_date,max(d) as ending_date,count(d) as consecutive_days
from sequence_group
group by group_number
-- order by consecutive_days desc limit 1
Live test: http://www.sqlfiddle.com/#!1/93789/21
In MySQL you could do this:
SET #nextDate = CURRENT_DATE;
SET #RowNum = 1;
SELECT MAX(RowNumber) AS ConecutiveVisits
FROM ( SELECT #RowNum := IF(#NextDate = Created_At, #RowNum + 1, 1) AS RowNumber,
Created_At,
#NextDate := DATE_ADD(Created_At, INTERVAL 1 DAY) AS NextDate
FROM Visits
ORDER BY Created_At
) Visits
Example here:
http://sqlfiddle.com/#!2/6e035/8
However I am not 100% certain this is the best way to do it.
In Postgresql:
;WITH RECURSIVE VisitsCTE AS
( SELECT Created_At, 1 AS ConsecutiveDays
FROM Visits
UNION ALL
SELECT v.Created_At, ConsecutiveDays + 1
FROM Visits v
INNER JOIN VisitsCTE cte
ON 1 + cte.Created_At = v.Created_At
)
SELECT MAX(ConsecutiveDays) AS ConsecutiveDays
FROM VisitsCTE
Example here:
http://sqlfiddle.com/#!1/16c90/9
I know Postgresql has something similar to common table expressions as available in MSSQL. I'm not that familiar with Postgresql, but the code below works for MSSQL and does what you want.
create table #tempdates (
mydate date
)
insert into #tempdates(mydate) values('2012-04-28')
insert into #tempdates(mydate) values('2012-04-29')
insert into #tempdates(mydate) values('2012-04-30')
insert into #tempdates(mydate) values('2012-05-03')
insert into #tempdates(mydate) values('2012-05-04');
with maxdays (s, e, c)
as
(
select mydate, mydate, 1
from #tempdates
union all
select m.s, mydate, m.c + 1
from #tempdates t
inner join maxdays m on DATEADD(day, -1, t.mydate)=m.e
)
select MIN(o.s),o.e,max(o.c)
from (
select m1.s,max(m1.e) e,max(m1.c) c
from maxdays m1
group by m1.s
) o
group by o.e
drop table #tempdates
And here's the SQL fiddle: http://sqlfiddle.com/#!3/42b38/2
All are very good answers, but I think I should contribute by showing another approach utilizing an analytical capability specific to Vertica (after all it is part of what you paid for). And I promise the final query is short.
First, query using conditional_true_event(). From Vertica's documentation:
Assigns an event window number to each row, starting from 0, and
increments the number by 1 when the result of the boolean argument
expression evaluates true.
The example query looks like this:
select uid, created_at,
conditional_true_event( created_at - lag(created_at) > '1 day' )
over (partition by uid order by created_at) as seq_id
from visits;
And output:
uid created_at seq_id
--- ------------------- ------
123 2012-04-28 00:00:00 0
123 2012-04-29 00:00:00 0
123 2012-04-30 00:00:00 0
123 2012-05-03 00:00:00 1
123 2012-05-04 00:00:00 1
123 2012-06-04 00:00:00 2
123 2012-06-04 00:00:00 2
Now the final query becomes easy:
select uid, seq_id, count(1) num_days, min(created_at) s, max(created_at) f
from
(
select uid, created_at,
conditional_true_event( created_at - lag(created_at) > '1 day' )
over (partition by uid order by created_at) as seq_id
from visits
) as seq
group by uid, seq_id;
Final Output:
uid seq_id num_days s f
--- ------ -------- ------------------- -------------------
123 0 3 2012-04-28 00:00:00 2012-04-30 00:00:00
123 1 2 2012-05-03 00:00:00 2012-05-04 00:00:00
123 2 2 2012-06-04 00:00:00 2012-06-04 00:00:00
One final note:
num_days is actually number of rows of the inner query. If there are two '2012-04-28' visits in the original table (i.e. duplicates), you might want to work around that.
The following should be Oracle friendly, and not require recursive logic.
;WITH
visit_dates (
visit_id,
date_id,
group_id
)
AS
(
SELECT
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY TRUNC(created_at)),
TRUNC(SYSDATE) - TRUNC(created_at),
TRUNC(SYSDATE) - TRUNC(created_at) - ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY TRUNC(created_at))
FROM
visits
GROUP BY
TRUNC(created_at)
)
,
group_duration (
group_id,
duration
)
AS
(
SELECT
group_id,
MAX(date_id) - MIN(date_id) + 1 AS duration
FROM
visit_dates
GROUP BY
group_id
)
SELECT
MAX(duration) AS max_duration
FROM
group_duration
Postgresql:
with headers as
(
select
d,
lag(d) over m is null or d - lag(d) over m <> interval '1 day' as header
from tbl
window m as (order by d)
)
,sequence_group as
(
select d, sum(header::int) over m as group_number
from headers
window m as (order by d)
)
,consecutive_list as
(
select d, group_number, count(d) over m as consecutive_count
from sequence_group
window m as (partition by group_number)
)
select * from consecutive_list
Divide-and-conquer approach: 3 steps
1st step, find headers:
with headers as
(
select
d,
lag(d) over m is null or d - lag(d) over m <> interval '1 day' as header
from tbl
window m as (order by d)
)
select * from headers
Output:
d | header
---------------------+--------
2012-04-28 08:00:00 | t
2012-04-29 08:00:00 | f
2012-04-30 08:00:00 | f
2012-05-03 08:00:00 | t
2012-05-04 08:00:00 | f
(5 rows)
2nd step, designate grouping:
with headers as
(
select
d,
lag(d) over m is null or d - lag(d) over m <> interval '1 day' as header
from tbl
window m as (order by d)
)
,sequence_group as
(
select d, sum(header::int) over m as group_number
from headers
window m as (order by d)
)
select * from sequence_group
Output:
d | group_number
---------------------+--------------
2012-04-28 08:00:00 | 1
2012-04-29 08:00:00 | 1
2012-04-30 08:00:00 | 1
2012-05-03 08:00:00 | 2
2012-05-04 08:00:00 | 2
(5 rows)
3rd step, count max days:
with headers as
(
select
d,
lag(d) over m is null or d - lag(d) over m <> interval '1 day' as header
from tbl
window m as (order by d)
)
,sequence_group as
(
select d, sum(header::int) over m as group_number
from headers
window m as (order by d)
)
,consecutive_list as
(
select d, group_number, count(d) over m as consecutive_count
from sequence_group
window m as (partition by group_number)
)
select * from consecutive_list
Output:
d | group_number | consecutive_count
---------------------+--------------+-----------------
2012-04-28 08:00:00 | 1 | 3
2012-04-29 08:00:00 | 1 | 3
2012-04-30 08:00:00 | 1 | 3
2012-05-03 08:00:00 | 2 | 2
2012-05-04 08:00:00 | 2 | 2
(5 rows)
This is for MySQL, the shortest, and uses minimal variable (one variable only):
select
min(d) as starting_date, max(d) as ending_date,
count(d) as consecutive_days
from
(
select
sr.d,
IF(fr.d is null,#group_number := #group_number + 1,#group_number)
as group_number
from tbl sr
left join tbl fr on sr.d = adddate(fr.d,interval 1 day)
cross join (select #group_number := 0) as grp
) as x
group by group_number
Output:
STARTING_DATE ENDING_DATE CONSECUTIVE_DAYS
April, 28 2012 08:00:00-0700 April, 30 2012 08:00:00-0700 3
May, 03 2012 08:00:00-0700 May, 04 2012 08:00:00-0700 2
Live test: http://www.sqlfiddle.com/#!2/65169/1
For PostgreSQL 8.4 or later, there is a short and clean way with window functions and no JOIN.
I'd expect this to be the fastest solution posted so far:
WITH x AS (
SELECT created_at AS d
, lag(created_at) OVER (ORDER BY created_at) = (created_at - 1) AS nu
FROM visits
WHERE uid = 1
)
, y AS (
SELECT d, count(NULLIF(nu, TRUE)) OVER (ORDER BY d) AS seq
FROM x
)
SELECT count(*) AS max_days, min(d) AS seq_from, max(d) AS seq_to
FROM y
GROUP BY seq
ORDER BY 1 DESC
LIMIT 1;
Returns:
max_days | seq_from | seq_to
---------+------------+-----------
3 | 2012-04-28 | 2012-04-30
Assuming that created_at is a date and unique.
In CTE x: for every day our user visits, check if he was here yesterday, too.
To calculate "yesterday" just use created_at - 1 The first row is a special case and will produce NULL here.
In CTE y: calculate a running count of "days without yesterday so far" (seq) for every day. NULL values don't count, so count(NULLIF(nu, TRUE)) is the fastes and shortest way, also covering the special case.
Finally, group days per seq and count the days. While being at it I added first and last day of the sequence.
ORDER BY length of the sequence, and pick the longest one.
Upon seeing OP's query approach for their Vertica database, I tried making the two joins run at the same time:
These Postgresql and Sql Server query versions shall both work in Vertica
Postgresql version:
select
min(gr.d) as start_date,
max(gr.d) as end_date,
date_part('day', max(gr.d) - min(gr.d))+1 as consecutive_days
from
(
select
cr.d, (row_number() over() - 1) / 2 as pair_number
from tbl cr
left join tbl pr on pr.d = cr.d - interval '1 day'
left join tbl nr on nr.d = cr.d + interval '1 day'
where pr.d is null <> nr.d is null
) as gr
group by pair_number
order by start_date
Regarding pr.d is null <> nr.d is null. It means, it's either the previous row is null or next row is null, but they can never both be null, so this basically removes the non-consecutive dates, as non-consecutive dates' previous & next row are nulls (and this basically gives us all dates that are just headers and footers only). This is also called an XOR operation
If we are left with consecutive dates only, we can now pair them via row_number:
(row_number() over() - 1) / 2 as pair_number
row_number() starts with 1, we need to subtract it with 1 (we can also add with 1 instead), then we divide it by two; this makes the paired date adjacent to each other
Live test: http://www.sqlfiddle.com/#!1/fc440/7
This is the Sql Server version:
select
min(gr.d) as start_date,
max(gr.d) as end_date,
datediff(day, min(gr.d),max(gr.d)) +1 as consecutive_days
from
(
select
cr.d, (row_number() over(order by cr.d) - 1) / 2 as pair_number
from tbl cr
left join tbl pr on pr.d = dateadd(day,-1,cr.d)
left join tbl nr on nr.d = dateadd(day,+1,cr.d)
where
case when pr.d is null then 1 else 0 end
<> case when nr.d is null then 1 else 0 end
) as gr
group by pair_number
order by start_date
Same logic as above, except for artificial differences on date functions. And sql Server requires an ORDER BY clause on its OVER, while Postgresql's OVER can be left empty.
Sql Server has no first class boolean, that's why we cannot compare booleans directly:
pr.d is null <> nr.d is null
We must do this in Sql Server:
case when pr.d is null then 1 else 0 end
<> case when nr.d is null then 1 else 0 end
Live test: http://www.sqlfiddle.com/#!3/65df2/17
There have already been several answers to this question. However the SQL statements all seem too complex. This can be accomplished with basic SQL, a way to enumerate rows, and some date arithmetic.
The key observation is that if you have a bunch of days and have a parallel sequence of integers, then the difference is a constant date when the days are in a sequence.
The following query uses this observation to answer the original question:
select uid, min(d) as startdate, count(*) as numdaysinseq
from
(
select uid, d, adddate(d, interval -offset day) as groupstart
from
(
select uid, d, row_number() over (partition by uid order by date) as offset
from
(
SELECT DISTINCT uid, DATE(created_at) AS d
FROM visits
) t
) t
) t
Alas, mysql does not have the row_number() function. However, there is a work-around with variables (and most other databases do have this function).