Create column from other columns in Database - sql

I have a table name: test
ID | Prefix | ACCID
ID's type is INTEGER which is selected from ID_SEQ
Prefix's type is VARCHAR(6)
ACCID is the combination of Prefix + ID
I want to auto-create ACCID when I insert the ID and Prefix value such as
INSERT INTO TEST (PREFIX) VALUES ('A01407V');
and the database store the ACCID as 'A01407V000001'
I create the sequence as
CREATE SEQUENCE ID_SEQ AS INT MAXVALUE 999999 CYCLE;
How to implement SQL statement to produce this result?
Thank you for all solutions and suggestions.
Ps. I use Apache Derby as my SQL Server

As documented in the manual, Derby supports generated columns (since Version 10.5)
The real problem is the formatting of a number with leading zeros as Derby has no function for that.
If you really, really think you need to store a value that can always be determined by the values already stored in the table, you can use something like this:
create table test
(
id integer,
prefix varchar(6),
accid generated always as (prefix||substr('000000', 1, 6 - length(rtrim(char(id))))||rtrim(char(id)))
);
The expression substr('000000', 1, 6 - length(rtrim(char(id))))||rtrim(char(id)) is just a complicated way to format a the ID with leading zeros.
I would highly recommend to not store this value though. It is much cleaner to create a view that shows this value if you do need access to this in SQL.

You can use COMPUTED Column.
Is a computed column that is based on some other column in the table. We can physically save the data of the column/ or not. Table will automatically update the value of this column.
syntax:
columnname AS expression [PERSISTED]
--PERSISTED will make it physically saved, otherwise it will be calculated every time.
We can create indexes on computed columns.
You add, The following in the table CREATE Script
ACCID AS Prefix + CAST(ID AS CHAR(6)) [PERSISTED]

Related

Alter data type of a column to serial

In pgsql, is there a way to have a table of several values, and choose one of them (say, other_id), find out what its highest value is and make every new entry that is put in the table increment from that value.
I suppose this was just too easy to have had a chance of working..
ALTER TABLE address ALTER COLUMN new_id TYPE SERIAL
____________________________________
ERROR: type "serial" does not exist
Thanks much for any insight!
Look into postgresql documentation of datatype serial. Serial is only short hand.
CREATE TABLE tablename (
colname SERIAL
);
is equivalent to specifying:
CREATE SEQUENCE tablename_colname_seq;
CREATE TABLE tablename (
colname integer NOT NULL DEFAULT nextval('tablename_colname_seq')
);
ALTER SEQUENCE tablename_colname_seq OWNED BY tablename.colname;
This happened because you may use the serial data type only when you are creating a new table or adding a new column to a table. If you'll try to ALTER an existing table using this data type you'll get an error. Because serial is not a true data type, but merely an abbreviation or alias for a longer query.
In case you would like to achieve the same effect, as you are expecting from using serial data type when you are altering existing table you may do this:
CREATE SEQUENCE my_serial AS integer START 1 OWNED BY address.new_id;
ALTER TABLE address ALTER COLUMN new_id SET DEFAULT nextval('my_serial');
The first line of the query creates your own sequence called my_serial. The
OWNED BY statement connects the newly created sequence with the exact column of your table. In your case the table is address and the column is new_id.
The START statement defines what value this sequence should start from.
The second line alters your table with the new default value, which will be determined by the previously created sequence.
It will give you the same result as you were expecting from using serial.
A quick glance at the docs tells you that
The data types smallserial, serial and bigserial are not true types
but merely a notational convenience for creating unique identifier columns
If you want to make an existing (integer) column to work as a "serial", just create the sequence by hand (the name is arbitrary), set its current value to the maximum (or bigger) of your current address.new_id value, at set it as default value for your address.new_id column.
To set the value of your sequence see here.
SELECT setval('address_new_id_seq', 10000);
This is just an example, use your own sequence name (arbitrary, you create it), and a number greater than the maximum current value of your column.
Update: as pointed out by Lucas' answer (which should be the acccepted one) you should also specify to which column the sequence "belongs to" by using CREATE/ALTER SEQUENCE ... OWNED BY ...

sql - retain calculated result in calculated field

certain fields in our database contain calculated functions e.g.
select lastname + ', ' + firstname as fullname from contact where contact.id =$contact$
when viewing the field the correct data is shown (i assume this is because when you open the record, the calculation is executed). however, the data is not 'stored' to the field, and therefore is null until the record is opened. is it possible to 'store' the result to the field, making it possible to search the data?
many thanks
james
EDIT
it is not possible for me to create computed_columns using our software.
the above field is a text feild where either 1) a user can manual type in the required data or 2) the database can generate the answer for you (but only whilst you are looking at the record). i know that if I run the following:
Select * from contact where contact.id =$contact$ for xml auto
i only get lastname, firstname - so i know that the fullname field does not retain its information.
If you are using computed columns in sql server, the column is already searchable regardless of whether the calculation result is stored or not. However, if you would like to make it so that the calculation is not run each time you read the row, you can change that under row properties in your Modify Table GUI.
Use the PERSISTED key word when you create the column
From BOL:
PERSISTED
Specifies that the SQL Server Database Engine will physically store the computed values in the table, and update the values when any other columns on which the computed column depends are updated. Marking a computed column as PERSISTED lets you create an index on a computed column that is deterministic, but not precise. For more information, see Creating Indexes on Computed Columns. Any computed columns that are used as partitioning columns of a partitioned table must be explicitly marked PERSISTED. computed_column_expression must be deterministic when PERSISTED is specified.
This isn't the way computed columns work in SQL Server, so I suspect this is something your client application is doing. How are you looking at the data when the value is computed correctly? Does it work when you view the data in SSMS?
Take a look at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191250(v=SQL.90).aspx to see how to create computed columns properly.
eg.
create table TestTable
(a int,
b int,
c as a + b)
insert into TestTable (a,b)
values (1,2)
select * from TestTable
where c = 3
This query is based on the computed column and it returns the row that's been inserted.
You need to use the PERSISTED option on a column when you use CREATE TABLE e.g.
CREATE TABLE test (col_a INT, col_b INT, col_c AS col_A * col_B PERSISTED)

SQL Identity with leading padded zeros

I have marked a column as Identity in my table
create table Identitytest(
number int identity(1,001) not null,
value varchar(500)
)
I need the identity column to be incremented as 001,002,003, etc.
The database shows that it is inserting as 1,2,3, etc.
How can this be done?
As the others have already rightfully pointed out - an INT never has leading zeroes - it just holds the value, that's all (and that's good that way).
If you need some additional formatting, you could always add a computed column to your table, something like:
ALTER TABLE dbo.Identitytest
ADD DisplayNumber AS RIGHT('000' + CAST(number AS VARCHAR(3)) , 3) PERSISTED
This way, your INT IDENTITY will be used as an INT and always contains the numerical value, while DisplayNumber contains 001, 002, ... 014, 015, ..... and so forth - automagically, always up to date.
Since it's a persisted field, it's now part of your table, and you can query on it, and even put an index on it to make queries faster:
SELECT value FROM dbo.IdentityTest WHERE DisplayNumber = '024'
And of course, you could use just about any formatting in the definition of your computed column, so you could also add a prefix or something:
ALTER TABLE dbo.Identitytest
ADD DisplayNumber
AS 'ABC-' + RIGHT('000' + CAST(number AS VARCHAR(3)) , 3) PERSISTED
So in this case, your DisplayNumber would be ABC-001, ABC-002, ... and so on.
You get the best of both worlds - you keep your INT IDENTITY which is numerical and automatically increased by SQL Server, and you can define a display format any way you like and have that available at any time.
If you want to display your number column with leading zeros, just pad it in your SELECT statement. It's a number, it will NOT store with leading zeros as an integer.
SELECT RIGHT('00000' + CAST([number] AS varchar(5)) , 3)
FROM IdentityTest
The 3 is the number of characters you want total in the output display.
If you require both the auto-incrementing number (which can only be a number) and an alphabetic representation of the number, you might consider looking at computed columns.
Here's a few links to get you going:
http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=1682
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191250.aspx
http://www.kodyaz.com/articles/sql-server-computed-column-calculated-column-sample.aspx
Why do you need that? As an integer, 001 is the same as 1. If what you want is that for display or other purposes, create another column and do your work there (you may do it as part of a trigger on the table, on insert, that looks at the newly inserted row, and creates the entry in the column appropriately.
i've got a table where i'm storing an integer, but the users want to see it a XXX, even if it has zeroes, so i wrote this code
declare #a int
set #a=1
select replicate('0',3-len(#a))+ cast(#a as varchar(4))
Here is another method:
create table TEST_T (ui int NOT NULL identity, name varchar(10))
insert into TEST_T values ( 'FRED' )
select NAME, ui, RIGHT('0000' + LTRIM(STR(ui)), 4) as ui_T from TEST_T
go
/* NOTE: A view could be created with a calculated column instead of the identity column. */
create view TEST_V as select NAME, RIGHT('0000' + LTRIM(STR(ui)), 4) as ui_V from TEST_T go
go
select * from TEST_V
drop view TEST_V
drop table TEST_T
Not quite as much data duplication(?) as adding a column to the table and no need to specify the column in the select statement.
I need the identity column to be
incremented as 001,002,003, etc.
The database shows that it is
inserting as 1,2,3, etc.
SQL databases store values, not the literals you used to write those values. 002 is 2. Just like 1 + 1 is 2. Would you expect SELECT 1 + 1 to display the string "1 + 1" instead of 2?
If you want the leading zeros to be stored in your column, you have to use a character type. But then you can't use AUTOINCREMENT/IDENTITY.
What you probably really want is something like printf("%03d", number) in program that reads from the database.

Change each record in a table with no primary key?

I have a table in a database that represents dates textually (i.e. "2008-11-09") and I would like to replace them with the UNIX timestamp. However, I don't think that MySQL is capable of doing the conversion on its own, so I'd like to write a little script to do the conversion. The way I can think to do it involves getting all the records in the table, iterating through them, and updating the database records. However, with no primary key, I can't easily get the exact record I need to update.
Is there a way to get MySQL to assign temporary IDs to records during a SELECT so that I refer back to them when doing UPDATEs?
Does this not do it?
UPDATE
MyTable
SET
MyTimeStamp = UNIX_TIMESTAMP(MyDateTime);
If for some reason you do have to iterate (the other answers cover the situation where you don't), I can think of two ways to do it (these aren't MySQL-specific):
Add a column to the table that's an auto-assigned number. Use that as the PK for your updates, then drop the column afterwards (or just keep it around for future use).
In a table with no defined PK, as long as there are no exact duplicate rows, you can use the entire row as a composite PK; just use every column in the row as your distinguishing characteristic. i.e., if the table has 3 columns, "name", "address", and "updated", do the following:
UPDATE mytable SET updated = [timestamp value] WHERE name = [name] AND address = [address] AND timestamp = [old timestamp]
Many data access frameworks use this exact strategy to implement optimistic concurrency.
No, you should be able to do this with a single update statement. If all of the dates are yyyy-mm-dd and they are just stored in some sort of text column instead of DATETIME, you can just move the data over. SQL would be like:
ALTER TABLE t ADD COLUMN dates DATETIME;
UPDATE t set t.dates=t.olddate;
This shouldn't be dependent on a PK because MySQL can scan through each row in the table. The only time PK's become an issue is if you need to update a single row, but the row may not be unique.
You can generate values during a SELECT using the MySQL user variables feature, but these values do not refer to the row; they're temporary parts of the result set only. You can't use them in UPDATE statements.
SET #v := 0;
SELECT #v:=#v+1, * FROM mytable;
Here's how I'd solve the problem. You're going to have to create another column for your UNIX timestamps anyway, so you can add it first. Then convert the values in the old datetime column to the UNIX timestamp and place it in the new column. Then drop the old textual datetime column.
ALTER TABLE mytable ADD COLUMN unix_timestamp INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0;
UPDATE mytable
SET unix_timestamp = UNIX_TIMESTAMP( STR_TO_DATE( text_timestamp, '%Y-%m-%d' ) );
ALTER TABLE mytable DROP COLUMN text_timestamp;
Of course you should confirm that the conversion has been done correctly before you drop the old column!
See UNIX_TIMESTAMP() and STR_TO_DATE()

Generating Random ID's in Microsoft SQL Server

I want to create a table in sql server and fill it up with data (people's info) every person should have a unique ID different than the auto incremented ID's by sql server
For example i need the ID for the first person inserted like this: 2016xxxx
how to fix the 2016 and randomly generate the numbers after that to be filled instead of xxxx
should i use a regular expression ?
You can also create a computed column like below
CREATE TABLE tableName
(
PkAutoId INT PRIMARY KEY IDENTITY(1,1),
PersonUniqueNo AS (CAST(DATEPART(YEAR,GETDATE()) AS VARCHAR) + RIGHT(RIGHT(CAST(RAND() AS VARCHAR),4) + CAST(PkAutoId AS VARCHAR),4))
)
Computed Column "PersonUniqueNo" is 8 Digit Unique Number comprising of Current Year And Conceited value of Random number and Primary Key Id for 4 Length, Total length will be 8 as asked.
You could create a function that would get the next value for you and use that instead of an AUTO_INCREMENT field.
I wouldn't recommend it tho. You shouldn't format the data like that before inserting it. That sort of thing should be done on the way out, preferably by the front-end code. Or you can just write a query and create a view ...
However if you must do that here is the complete answer with the code:
Is there a way to insert an auto-incremental primary id with a prefix in mysql database?