Coldfusion & SQL to create recursive tree - sql

Question

UPDATE
I have a very unique case where I am given this from my SQL database.
+------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| LVL | LVL_1 | LVL_2 | LVL_3 | LVL_4 |
+------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| PHIL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL |
| PHIL | BOB | NULL | NULL | NULL |
| PHIL | BOB | BILL | NULL | NULL |
| PHIL | BOB | BILL | JEN | NULL |
| PHIL | BOB | BILL | JEN | JOE |
+------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
The last LVL column that contains a name represents the person.
For example, this represents PHIL
| PHIL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL |
And this represents JEN
| PHIL | BOB | BILL | JEN | NULL |
And this represents JOE (since he is the last level)
| PHIL | BOB | BILL | JEN | JOE |
My ultimate goal is to return this data into a JSON tree structure from ColdFusion like this when I query for 'PHIL':
{
name: 'PHIL',
parent: NULL,
level: 0,
groups: [
{
name: 'BOB',
parent: 'PHIL',
level: 1,
groups: [
{
name: 'BILL',
parent: 'BOB',
level: 2,
groups: [
{
name: 'JEN',
parent: 'BILL',
level: 3,
groups: [
{
name: 'JOE',
parent: 'JEN',
level: 4,
groups: []
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
If I query for 'BILL', I can only see the the tree data below him like this:
{
name: 'BILL',
parent: 'BOB',
level: 2,
groups: [
{
name: 'JEN',
parent: 'BILL',
level: 3,
groups: [
{
name: 'JOE',
parent: 'JEN',
level: 4,
groups: []
}
]
}
]
}
I'd like to write some SQL command that would be able to produce a tree structure of this data. If it's not possible, I'd like to at least reformat (with SQL commands) the original data into:
+------+--------+
| NAME | PARENT |
+------+--------+
| PHIL | NULL |
| BOB | PHIL |
| BILL | BOB |
| JEN | BILL |
| JOE | JEN |
+------+--------+
So I can perhaps restructure this into a tree data using ColdFusion by following this tutorial http://www.bennadel.com/blog/1069-ask-ben-simple-recursion-example.htm
Is it possible? Can somebody help me on this?

Answer 1

<cfscript>
q = queryNew("LTM,LTM_1,LTM_2,LTM_3,LTM_4");
queryAddRow(q);
QuerySetCell(q, "LTM", "OSTAPOWER");
QuerySetCell(q, "LTM_1", "VENKAT");
QuerySetCell(q, "LTM_2", "LYNN");
QuerySetCell(q, "LTM_3", "SMITH");
QuerySetCell(q, "LTM_4", "HARTLEY");
queryAddRow(q);
QuerySetCell(q, "LTM", "OSTAPOWER");
QuerySetCell(q, "LTM_1", "VENKAT");
QuerySetCell(q, "LTM_2", "LYNN");
QuerySetCell(q, "LTM_3", "SMITH");
QuerySetCell(q, "LTM_4", "SHREVE");
function collect(q) {
var data = {};
for (var row in q)
{
var varName = "data";
for (var i = 0; i <= 4; i++)
{
var col = i == 0 ? "LTM" : "LTM_#i#";
var name = row[col];
if (len(name))
varName = listAppend(varName, name, ".");
else
break;
}
setVariable(varName, {});
}
return data;
}
function transform(tree, nodeName, level=0, parent="")
{
if (structIsEmpty(tree))
return "";
var node = {
'name': nodeName,
'parent': len(parent) ? parent : javacast("null",""),
'level': javacast("int", level),
'groups': []
};
var branch = tree[nodeName];
for (var child in branch)
arrayAppend(node.groups, transform(branch, child, level+1, nodeName));
return node;
}
c=collect(q);
writeDump(transform(c,'OSTAPOWER'));
</cfscript>
Run it: http://www.trycf.com/scratch-pad/pastebin?id=c8YMvGXG
Then just serializeJSON() the result returned from transform().