How to create a good request with "max(count(*))"? - sql

Question

I have to say who is the scientist who have been the most in mission. I tried this code but it wasn't successful:
select name
from scientist, mission
where mission.nums = chercheur.nums
having count(*) = (select max(count(numis)) from mission, scientist where
mission.nums = chercheur.nums
group by name)
I have done several modifications for this request but I only obtain errors (ora-0095 and ora-0096 if I remember correctly).
Also, I create my tables with:
CREATE TABLE Scientist
(NUMS NUMBER(8),
NAME VARCHAR2 (15),
CONSTRAINT CP_CHER PRIMARY KEY (NUMS));
CREATE TABLE MISSION
(NUMIS NUMBER(8),
Country VARCHAR2 (15),
NUMS NUMBER(8),
CONSTRAINT CP_MIS PRIMARY KEY (NUMIS),
CONSTRAINT CE_MIS FOREIGN KEY (NUMS) REFERENCES SCIENTIST (NUMC));

Answer 1

You could count the missions each scientist participated in, and wrap that query in a query with a window function that will rank them according to their participation:
SELECT name
FROM (SELECT name, RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY name ORDER BY cnt DESC) AS rk
FROM (SELECT name, COUNT(*) AS cnt
FROM scientist s
JOIN mission m ON s.nums = m.nums
GROUP BY name) t
) q
WHERE rk = 1

Answer 2

Step 0 : Format your code :-) It would make it much easier to visualize
Step 1 : Get the count of Numis by Nums in the Mission table. This will tell you how many missions were done by each Nums
This is done in the cte block cnt_by_nums
Next to get the name of the scientist by joining cnt_by_nums with scientist table.
After that you want to get only those scientists who have the cnt_by_missions as the max available value from cnt_by_num
with cnt_by_nums
as (select Nums,count(Numis) as cnt_missions
from mission
group by Nums
)
select a.Nums,max(b.Name) as name
from cnt_by_nums a
join scientist b
on a.Nums=b.Nums
group by a.Nums
having count(a.cnt_missions)=(select max(a1.cnt_missions) from cnt_by_nums a1)

Answer 3

I'd write a query like this:
SELECT NAME, COUNTER
FROM
(SELECT NAME, COUNT(*) AS COUNTER
FROM SCIENTIST S
LEFT JOIN MISSION M
ON S.NUMS=M.NUMS
GROUP BY NAME) NUM
INNER JOIN
(SELECT MAX(COUNTER) AS MAX_COUNTER FROM
(SELECT NAME, COUNT(*) AS COUNTER
FROM SCIENTIST S
LEFT JOIN MISSION M
ON S.NUMS=M.NUMS
GROUP BY NAME) C) MAX
ON NUM.COUNTER=MAX.MAX_COUNTER;
(it works on MYSQL, I hope it's the same in Oracle)

Answer 4

As you don't select the name of your scientist (only count their missions) you don't need to join those tables within the subquery. Grouping over the foreign key would be sufficient:
select count(numis) from mission group by nums
You column names are a bit weird but that's your choice ;-)
Selecting only the scientist with the most mission references could be achieved in two ways. One way would be your approach where you may get multiple scientists if they have the same max missions.
The first problem you have in your query is that you are checking an aggregation (HAVING COUNT(*) = ) without grouping. You are only grouping your subselect.
Second, you could not aggregate an aggregation (MAX(COUNT)) but you may select only the first row of that subselect ordered by it's size or select the max of it by subquerying the subquery.
Approach with only one line:
select s.name from scientist s, mission m
where m.nums = s.nums
group by name
having count(*) =
(select count(numis) from mission
group by nums
order by 1 desc
fetch first 1 row only)
Approach with double subquery:
select s.name from scientist s, mission m
where m.nums = s.nums
group by name having count(*) =
(select max(numis) from
(select count(numis) numis from mission group by nums)
)
Second approach would be doing the FETCH FIRST on yur final result but this would give you exactly 1 scientist even if there are multiple with the same max missions:
select s.name from scientist s, mission m
where m.nums = s.nums
group by name
order by count(*) desc
fetch first 1 row only
Doing a cartisian product is not state of the art but the optimizer would make it a "good join" with the given reference in the where clause.
Made these with IBM Db2 but should also work on Oracle.

Answer 5

If you want one row, then in Oracle 12+, you can do:
SELECT name, COUNT(*) AS cnt
FROM scientist s JOIN
mission m
ON s.nums = m.nums
GROUP BY name
ORDER BY COUNT(*) DESC
FETCH FIRST 1 ROW ONLY;
In earlier versions, you would generally use a subquery:
SELECT s.*
FROM (SELECT name, COUNT(*) AS cnt
FROM scientist s JOIN
mission m
ON s.nums = m.nums
GROUP BY name
ORDER BY COUNT(*) DESC
) sm
WHERE rownum = 1;
If you want ties, then generally window functions would be a simple solution:
SELECT s.*
FROM (SELECT name, COUNT(*) AS cnt,
RANK() OVER (ORDER BY COUNT(*) DESC) as seqnum
FROM scientist s JOIN
mission m
ON s.nums = m.nums
GROUP BY name
ORDER BY COUNT(*) DESC
) sm
WHERE seqnum = 1;