Combine Unique Column Values Into One to Avoid Duplicates - sql

For simplicity, assume I have two tables joined by account#. The second table has two columns, id and comment. Each account could have one or more comments and each unique comment has a unique id.
I need to write a t-sql query to generate one row for each account - which I assume means I need to combine as many comments as might exit for each account. This assumes the result set will only show the account# once. Simple?

Sql Server is a RDBMS best tuned for storing data and retrieving data, you can retrieve the desired data with one very simple query but the desired format should be handled with any of the reporting tools available like ssrs or crystal reports
Your query will be a simple inner join something like this
SELECT A.Account , B.Comment
FROM TableA AS A INNER JOIN TableB AS B
ON A.Account = B.Account
Now you can use your reporting tool to Group all the Comments by Account when Displaying data.

I do agree with M. Ali, but if you don't have that option, the following will work.
SELECT [accountID]
, [name]
, (SELECT CAST(Comment + ', ' AS VARCHAR(MAX))
FROM [comments]
WHERE (accountID = accounts.accountID)
FOR XML PATH ('')
) AS Comments
FROM accounts
SQL Fiddle

In my actual project I have this exact situation.
What you need is a solution to aggregate the comments in order to show only one line per account#.
I solve it by creating a function to concatenate the comments, like this:
create function dbo.aggregateComments( #accountId integer, #separator varchar( 5 ) )
as
begin;
declare #comments varchar( max ); set #comments = '';
select #comments = #comments + #separator + YouCommentsTableName.CommentColumn
from dbo.YouCommentsTableNAme
where YouCommentsTableName.AccountId = #accountId;
return #comments;
end;
You can use it on you query this way:
select account#, dbo.aggretateComments( account#, ',' )
from dbo.YourAccountTableName
Creating a function will give you a common place to retrieve your comments. It's a good programming practice.

Related

How to use Join with like operator and then casting columns

I have 2 tables with these columns:
CREATE TABLE #temp
(
Phone_number varchar(100) -- example data: "2022033456"
)
CREATE TABLE orders
(
Addons ntext -- example data: "Enter phone:2022033456<br>Thephoneisvalid"
)
I have to join these two tables using 'LIKE' as the phone numbers are not in same format. Little background I am joining the #temp table on the phone number with orders table on its Addons value. Then again in WHERE condition I am trying to match them and get some results. Here is my code. But my results that I am getting are not accurate. As its not returning any data. I don't know what I am doing wrong. I am using SQL Server.
select
*
from
order_no as n
join
orders as o on n.order_no = o.order_no
join
#temp as t on t.phone_number like '%'+ cast(o.Addons as varchar(max))+'%'
where
t.phone_number = '%' + cast(o.Addons as varchar(max)) + '%'
You can not use LIKE statement in the JOIN condition. Please provide more information on your tables. You have to convert the format of one of the phone field to compile with other phone field format in order to join.
I think your join condition is in the wrong order. Because your question explicitly mentions two tables, let's stick with those:
select *
from orders o JOIN
#temp t
on cast(o.Addons as varchar(max)) like '%' + t.phone_number + '%';
It has been so long since I dealt with the text data type (in SQL Server), that I don't remember if the cast() is necessary or not.
Instead of trying to do everything in a single top-level query, you should apply a transformation projection to your orders table and use that as a subquery, which will make the query easier to understand.
Using the CHARINDEX function will make this a lot easier, however it does not support ntext, you will need to change your schema to use nvarchar(max) instead - which you should be doing anyway as ntext is deprecated, fortunately you can use CONVERT( nvarchar(max), someNTextValue ), though this will reduce performance as you won't be able to use any indexes on your ntext values - but this query will run slowly anyway.
SELECT
orders2.*,
CASE WHEN orders2.PhoneStart > 0 AND orders2.PhoneEnd > 0 THEN
SUBSTRING( orders2.Addons, orders2.PhoneStart, orders2.PhoneEnd - orders2.PhoneStart )
ELSE
NULL
END AS ExtractedPhoneNumber
FROM
(
SELECT
orders.*, -- never use `*` in production, so replace this with the actual columns in your orders table
CHARINDEX('Enter phone:', Addons) AS PhoneStart,
CHARINDEX('<br>Thephoneisvalid', AddOns, CHARINDEX('Enter phone:', Addons) ) AS PhoneEnd
FROM
orders
) AS orders2
I suggest converting the above into a VIEW or CTE so you can directly query it in your JOIN expression:
CREATE VIEW ordersWithPhoneNumbers AS
-- copy and paste the above query here, then execute the batch to create the view, you only need to do this once.
Then you can use it like so:
SELECT
* -- again, avoid the use of the star selector in production use
FROM
ordersWithPhoneNumbers AS o2 -- this is the above query as a VIEW
INNER JOIN order_no ON o2.order_no = order_no.order_no
INNER JOIN #temp AS t ON o2.ExtractedPhoneNumber = t.phone_number
Actually, I take back my previous remark about performance - if you add an index to the ExtractedPhoneNumber column of the ordersWithPhoneNumbers view then you'll get good performance.

Sql queries usng SELECT statement

I have these table from a database. The table WORKER has 2 fields one of them is ID_W(number) and the other is DUTY(text).
WORKER(ID_W,DUTY)
I want to create an sql query that selects only ID_W(id of worker) which have the same DUTY where DUTY is a text type field.
Can someone help me? I want to use an aggregate function but none of them helps.
I used a temp table for an example but this would do what you are wanting I believe:
SELECT Duty,
STUFF((
SELECT ', ' + CAST(ID_W AS VARCHAR(MAX))
FROM #WORKER
WHERE Duty = T.DUTY
FOR XML PATH(''),TYPE).value('(./text())[1]','VARCHAR(MAX)')
,1,2,'') AS IDs FROM #WORKER T
GROUP BY Duty
If I am understanding your question correctly, you are looking for only the IDs of the workers whose DUTY field matches that of another worker.
You can do this with a WHERE EXISTS clause, but you need to CONVERT the TEXT column into a VARCHAR (MAX) in order to compare them. This conversion on both sides will make the query expensive, but this is another way to do it:
Select ID_W
From WORKER A
Where Exists
(
Select *
From WORKER B
Where A.ID_W <> B.ID_W
And Convert(Varchar (Max), A.DUTY) = Convert(Varchar (Max), B.DUTY)
)

Check if a list of items already exists in a SQL database

I want to create a group of users only if the same group does not exist already in the database.
I have a GroupUser table with three columns: a primary key, a GroupId, and a UserId. A group of users is described as several lines in this table sharing a same GroupId.
Given a list of UserId, I would like to find a matching GroupId, if it exists.
What is the most efficient way to do that in SQL?
Let say your UserId list is stored in a table called 'MyUserIDList', the following query will efficiently return the list of GroupId containing exactly your user list. (SQL Server Syntax)
Select GroupId
From (
Select GroupId
, count(*) as GroupMemberCount
, Sum(case when MyUserIDList.UserID is null then 0 else 1 End) as GroupMemberCountInMyList
from GroupUser
left outer join MyUserIDList on GroupUser.UserID=MyUserIDList.UserID
group by GroupId
) As MySubQuery
Where GroupMemberCount=GroupMemberCountInMyList
There are couple of ways of doing this. This answer is for sql server only (as you have not mentioned it in your tags)
Pass the list of userids in comma seperated to a stored procedure and in the SP create a dynamic query with this and use the EXEC command to execute the query. This link will guide you in this regard
Use a table-valued parameter in a SP. This is applicable to sql server 2008 and higher only.
The following link will help you get started.
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/113458/TSQL-Passing-array-list-set-to-stored-procedure-MS
Hope this helps.
One other solution is that you convert the input list into a table. This can be done with various approaches. Unions, temporary tables and others. A neat solution combines the answer of
user1461607 for another question here on SO, using a comma-separated string.
WITH split(word, csv) AS (
-- 'initial query' (see SQLite docs linked above)
SELECT
'', -- place holder for each word we are looking for
'Auto,A,1234444,' -- items you are looking for
-- make sure the list ends with a comma !!
UNION ALL SELECT
substr(csv, 0, instr(csv, ',')), -- each word contains text up to next ','
substr(csv, instr(csv, ',') + 1) -- next recursion parses csv after this ','
FROM split -- recurse
WHERE csv != '' -- break recursion once no more csv words exist
) SELECT word, exisiting_data
FROM split s
-- now join the key you want to check for existence!
-- for demonstration purpose, I use an outer join
LEFT OUTER JOIN (select 'A' as exisiting_data) as t on t.exisiting_data = s.word
WHERE s.word != '' -- make sure we clamp the empty strings from the split function
;
Results in:
Auto,null
A,A
1234444,null

Is there any way of improving the performance of this SQL Function?

I have a table which looks something like
Event ID Date Instructor
1 1/1/2000 Person 1
1 1/1/2000 Person 2
Now what I want to do is return this data so that each event is on one row and the Instructors are all in one column split with a <br> tag like 'Person 1 <br> Person 2'
Currently the way I have done this is to use a function
CREATE FUNCTION fnReturnInstructorNamesAsHTML
(
#EventID INT
)
RETURNS VARCHAR(max)
BEGIN
DECLARE #Result VARCHAR(MAX)
SELECT
#result = coalesce(#result + '<br>', '') + inst.InstructorName
FROM
[OpsInstructorEventsView] inst
WHERE
inst.EventID = #EventID
RETURN #result
END
Then my main stored procedure calls it like
SELECT
ev.[BGcolour],
ev.[Event] AS name,
ev.[eventid] AS ID,
ev.[eventstart],
ev.[CourseType],
ev.[Type],
ev.[OtherType],
ev.[OtherTypeDesc],
ev.[eventend],
ev.[CourseNo],
ev.[Confirmed],
ev.[Cancelled],
ev.[DeviceID] AS resource_id,
ev.Crew,
ev.CompanyName ,
ev.Notes,
dbo.fnReturnInstructorNamesAsHTML(ev.EventID) as Names
FROM
[OpsSimEventsView] ev
JOIN
[OpsInstructorEventsView] inst
ON
ev.EventID = inst.EventID
This is very slow, im looking at 4seconds per call to the DB. Is there a way for me to improve the performance of the function? Its a fairly small function so im not sure what I can do here, and I couldnt see a way to work the COALESCE into the SELECT of the main procedure.
Any help would be really appreciated, thanks.
You could try something like this.
SELECT
ev.[BGcolour],
ev.[Event] AS name,
ev.[eventid] AS ID,
ev.[eventstart],
ev.[CourseType],
ev.[Type],
ev.[OtherType],
ev.[OtherTypeDesc],
ev.[eventend],
ev.[CourseNo],
ev.[Confirmed],
ev.[Cancelled],
ev.[DeviceID] AS resource_id,
ev.Crew,
ev.CompanyName ,
ev.Notes,
STUFF((SELECT '<br>'+inst.InstructorName
FROM [OpsInstructorEventsView] inst
WHERE ev.EventID = inst.EventID
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE).value('.', 'nvarchar(max)'), 1, 4, '') as Names
FROM
[OpsSimEventsView] ev
Not sure why you have joined OpsInstructorEventsView in the main query. I removed it here but if you needed you can just add it again.
A few things to look at:
1) The overhead of functions makes them expensive to call, especially in the select statement of a query that could potentially be returning thousands of rows. It will have to execute that function for every one of them. Consider merging the behavior of the function into your main stored procedure, where the SQL Server can make better use of its optimizer.
2) Since you are joining on event id in both tables, make sure you have an index on those two columns. I would expect that you do, given that those both appear to be primary key columns, but make sure. An index can make a huge difference.
3) Convert your coalesce call into its equivalent case statements to remove the overhead of calling that function.
Yes make it an INLINE Table-Valued SQL function:
CREATE FUNCTION fnReturnInstructorNamesAsHTML
( #EventID INT )
RETURNS Table
As
Return
SELECT InstructorName + '<br>' result
FROM OpsInstructorEventsView
WHERE EventID = #EventID
Go
Then, in your SQL Statement, use it like this
SELECT ]Other stuff],
(Select result from dbo.fnReturnInstructorNamesAsHTML(ev.EventID)) as Names
FROM OpsSimEventsView ev
JOIN OpsInstructorEventsView inst
ON ev.EventID = inst.EventID
I'm not exactly clear how the query you show in your question is concatenating data from multiple rows in one row of the result, but the problem is that ordinary UDFs are compiled on use, on EVERY use, so for each row in your output result the Query processopr has to recompile the UDF again. THis is NOT True for an "inline table valued" UDF, as it's sql is folded into the outer sql before it is passed to the SQL optimizer, (the subsystem that generates the statement cache plan) and so the UDF is only compiled once.

SP to find keywords like a list or strings

In my mssql database I have a table containing articles(id, name, content) a table containing keywords(id, name) and a link table between articles and keywords ArticleKeywords(articleId, keywordID, count). Count is the number of occurrences of that keyword in the article.
How can I write a SP that gets a list of comma separated strings and gives me the articles that have this keywords ordered by the number of occurrences of the keywords in the article?
If an article contains more keywords I want to sum the occurrences of each keyword.
Thanks, Radu
Although it isn't completely clear to me what the source of your comma-separated string is, I think what you want is an SP that takes a string as input and produces the desired result:
CREATE PROC KeywordArticleSearch(#KeywordString NVARCHAR(MAX)) AS BEGIN...
The first step is to verticalize the comma-separated string into a table with the values in rows. This is a problem that has been extensively treated in this question and another question, so just look there and choose one of the options. Whichever way you choose, store the results in a table variable or temp table.
DECLARE #KeywordTable TABLE (Keyword NVARCHAR(128))
-- or alternatively...
CREATE TABLE #KeywordTable (Keyword NVARCHAR(128))
For lookup speed, it is even better to store the KeywordID instead so your query only has to find matching ID's:
DECLARE #KeywordIDTable TABLE (KeywordID INT)
INSERT INTO #KeywordTable
SELECT K.KeywordID FROM SplitFunctionResult S
-- INNER JOIN: keywords that are nonexistent are omitted
INNER JOIN Keywords K ON S.Keyword = K.Keyword
Next, you can go about writing your query. This would be something like:
SELECT articleId, SUM(count)
FROM ArticleKeywords AK
WHERE K.KeywordID IN (SELECT KeywordID FROM #KeywordIDTable)
GROUP BY articleID
Or instead of the WHERE you could use an INNER JOIN. I don't think the query plan would be much different.
For the sake or argument lets say you want to look-up all articles containg the keywords Foo, Bar and Shazam.
ALTER PROCEDURE spArticlesFromKeywordList
#KeyWords varchar(1000) = 'Foo,Bar,Shazam'
AS
SET NOCOUNT ON
DECLARE #KeyWordInClause varchar(1000)
SET #KeyWordInClause = REPLACE (#KeyWords ,',',''',''')
EXEC(
'
SELECT
t1.Name as ArticleName,
t2.Name as KeyWordName,
t3.Count as [COUNT]
FROM ArticleKeywords t3
INNER JOIN Articles t1 on t3.ArticleId = t1.Id
INNER JOIN Keywords t2 on t3.KeywordId = t2.Id
WHERE t2.KeyWord in ( ''' + #KeyWordInClause + ''')
ORDER BY
3 descending, 1
'
)
SET NOCOUNT OFF
I think I understand what you are after so here goes ,(not sure what lang you are using but) in PHP (from your description) I would query ArticleKeywords using a ORDER BY count DESC statement (i.e. the highest comes first) - Obviously you can "select by keywordID or articleid. In very simple terms (cos that's me - simple & there may be much better people than me) you can return the array but create a string from it a bit like this:
$arraytostring .= $row->keywordID.',';
If you left join the tables you could create something like this:
$arraytostring .= $row->keywordID.'-'.$row->name.' '.$row->content.',';
Or you could catch the array as
$array[] = $row->keywordID;
and create your string outside the loop.
Note: you have 2 fields called "name" one in articles and one in keywords it would be easier to rename one of them to avoid any conflicts (that is assuming they are not the same content) i.e. articles name = title and keywords name= keyword