Break up running sum into maximum group size / length - sql

Question

I am trying to break up a running (ordered) sum into groups of a max value. When I implement the following example logic...
IF OBJECT_ID(N'tempdb..#t') IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE #t
SELECT TOP (ABS(CHECKSUM(NewId())) % 1000) ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY name) AS ID,
LEFT(CAST(NEWID() AS NVARCHAR(100)),ABS(CHECKSUM(NewId())) % 30) AS Description
INTO #t
FROM sys.objects
DECLARE #maxGroupSize INT
SET #maxGroupSize = 100
;WITH t AS (
SELECT
*,
LEN(Description) AS DescriptionLength,
SUM(LEN(Description)) OVER (/*PARTITION BY N/A */ ORDER BY ID) AS [RunningLength],
SUM(LEN(Description)) OVER (/*PARTITION BY N/A */ ORDER BY ID)/#maxGroupSize AS GroupID
FROM #t
)
SELECT *, SUM(DescriptionLength) OVER (PARTITION BY GroupID) AS SumOfGroup
FROM t
ORDER BY GroupID, ID
I am getting groups that are larger than the maximum group size (length) of 100.

Answer 1

A recusive common table expression (rcte) would be one way to resolve this.
Sample data
Limited set of fixed sample data.
create table data
(
id int,
description nvarchar(20)
);
insert into data (id, description) values
( 1, 'qmlsdkjfqmsldk'),
( 2, 'mldskjf'),
( 3, 'qmsdlfkqjsdm'),
( 4, 'fmqlsdkfq'),
( 5, 'qdsfqsdfqq'),
( 6, 'mds'),
( 7, 'qmsldfkqsjdmfqlkj'),
( 8, 'qdmsl'),
( 9, 'mqlskfjqmlkd'),
(10, 'qsdqfdddffd');
Solution
For every recursion step evaluate (r.group_running_length + len(d.description) <= #group_max_length) if the previous group must be extended or a new group must be started in a case expression.
Set group target size to 40 to better fit the sample data.
declare #group_max_length int = 40;
with rcte as
(
select d.id,
d.description,
len(d.description) as description_length,
len(d.description) as running_length,
1 as group_id,
len(d.description) as group_running_length
from data d
where d.id = 1
union all
select d.id,
d.description,
len(d.description),
r.running_length + len(d.description),
case
when r.group_running_length + len(d.description) <= #group_max_length
then r.group_id
else r.group_id + 1
end,
case
when r.group_running_length + len(d.description) <= #group_max_length
then r.group_running_length + len(d.description)
else len(d.description)
end
from rcte r
join data d
on d.id = r.id + 1
)
select r.id,
r.description,
r.description_length,
r.running_length,
r.group_id,
r.group_running_length,
gs.group_sum
from rcte r
cross apply ( select max(r2.group_running_length) as group_sum
from rcte r2
where r2.group_id = r.group_id ) gs -- group sum
order by r.id;
Result
Contains both the running group length as well as the group sum for every row.
id description description_length running_length group_id group_running_length group_sum
-- ---------------- ------------------ -------------- -------- -------------------- ---------
1 qmlsdkjfqmsldk 14 14 1 14 33
2 mldskjf 7 21 1 21 33
3 qmsdlfkqjsdm 12 33 1 33 33
4 fmqlsdkfq 9 42 2 9 39
5 qdsfqsdfqq 10 52 2 19 39
6 mds 3 55 2 22 39
7 qmsldfkqsjdmfqlkj 17 72 2 39 39
8 qdmsl 5 77 3 5 28
9 mqlskfjqmlkd 12 89 3 17 28
10 qsdqfdddffd 11 100 3 28 28
Fiddle to see things in action (includes random data version).