SQL - Combine two rows if difference is below threshhold - sql

Question

I have a table like this in SQL Server:
id start_time end_time
1 10:00:00 10:34:00
2 10:38:00 10:52:00
3 10:53:00 11:23:00
4 11:24:00 11:56:00
5 14:20:00 14:40:00
6 14:41:00 14:59:00
7 15:30:00 15:40:00
What I would like to have is a query that outputs consolidated records based on the time difference between two consecutive records (end_time of row n and start_time row n+1) . All records where the time difference is less than 2 minutes should be combined into one time entry and the ID of the first record should be kept. This should also combine more than two records if multiple consecutive records have a time difference less than 2 minutes.
This would be the expected output:
id start_time end_time
1 10:00:00 10:34:00
2 10:38:00 11:56:00
5 14:20:00 14:59:00
7 15:30:00 15:40:00
Thanks in advance for any tips how to build the query.
Edit:
I started with following code to calculate the lead_time and the time difference but do not know how to group and consolidate.
WITH rows AS
(
SELECT *, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY Id) AS rn
FROM #temp
)
SELECT mc.id, mc.start_time, mc.end_time, mp.start_time lead_time, DATEDIFF(MINUTE, mc.[end_time], mp.[start_time]) as DiffToNewSession
FROM rows mc
LEFT JOIN rows mp
ON mc.rn = mp.rn - 1

Answer 1

The window function in t-sql can realize a lot of data statistics, such as
create table #temp(id int identity(1,1), start_time time, end_time time)
insert into #temp(start_time, end_time)
values ('10:00:00', '10:34:00')
, ('10:38:00', '10:52:00')
, ('10:53:00', '11:23:00')
, ('11:24:00', '11:56:00')
, ('14:20:00', '14:40:00')
, ('14:41:00', '14:59:00')
, ('15:30:00', '15:40:00')
;with c0 as(
select *, LAG(end_time,1,'00:00:00') over (order by id) as lag_time
from #temp
), c1 as(
select *, case when DATEDIFF(MI, lag_time, start_time) <= 2 then 1 else -0 end as gflag
from c0
), c2 as(
select *, SUM(case when gflag=0 then 1 else 0 end) over(order by id) as gid
from c1
)
select MIN(id) as id, MIN(start_time) as start_time, MAX(end_time) as end_time
from c2
group by gid
In order to better describe the process of data construction, I simply use c0, c1, c2... to represent levels, you can merge some levels and optimize.
If you can’t use id as a sorting condition, then you need to change the sorting part in the above statement.

Answer 2

You can use a recursive cte to get the result that you want. This method just simple compare current end_time with next start_time. If it is less than the 2 mintues threshold use the same start_time as grp_start. And the end, simple do a GROUP BY on the grp_start
with rcte as
(
-- anchor member
select *, grp_start = start_time
from tbl
where id = 1
union all
-- recursive member
select t.id, t.start_time, t.end_time,
grp_start = case when datediff(second, r.end_time, t.start_time) <= 120
then r.grp_start
else t.start_time
end
from tbl t
inner join rcte r on t.id = r.id + 1
)
select id = min(id), grp_start as start_time, max(end_time) as end_time
from rcte
group by grp_start
demo

Answer 3

I guess this should do the trick without recursion. Again I used several ctes in order to make the solution a bit easier to read. guess it can be reduced a little...
INSERT INTO T1 VALUES
(1,'10:00:00','10:34:00')
,(2,'10:38:00','10:52:00')
,(3,'10:53:00','11:23:00')
,(4,'11:24:00','11:56:00')
,(5,'14:20:00','14:40:00')
,(6,'14:41:00','14:59:00')
,(7,'15:30:00','15:40:00')
GO
WITH cte AS(
SELECT *
,ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY id) AS rn
,DATEDIFF(MINUTE, ISNULL(LAG(endtime) OVER (ORDER BY id), starttime), starttime) AS diffMin
,COUNT(*) OVER (PARTITION BY (SELECT 1)) as maxRn
FROM T1
),
cteFirst AS(
SELECT *
FROM cte
WHERE rn = 1 OR diffMin > 2
),
cteGrp AS(
SELECT *
,ISNULL(LEAD(rn) OVER (ORDER BY id), maxRn+1) AS nextRn
FROM cteFirst
)
SELECT f.id, f.starttime, MAX(ISNULL(n.endtime, f.endtime)) AS endtime
FROM cteGrp f
LEFT JOIN cte n ON n.rn >= f.rn AND n.rn < f.nextRn
GROUP BY f.id, f.starttime