SQL Query Help (Advanced - for me!) - sql

Question

I have a question about a SQL query I am trying to write.
I need to query data from a database.
The database has, amongst others, these 3 fields:
Account_ID #, Date_Created, Time_Created
I need to write a query that tells me how many accounts were opened per hour.
I have written said query, but there are times that there were 0 accounts created, so these "hours" are not populated in the results.
For example:
Volume Date__Hour
435 12-Aug-12 03
213 12-Aug-12 04
125 12-Aug-12 06
As seen in the example above, hour 5 did not have any accounts opened.
Is there a way that the result can populate the hour but and display 0 accounts opened for this hour?
Example of how I want my results to look like:
Volume Date_Hour
435 12-Aug-12 03
213 12-Aug-12 04
0 12-Aug-12 05
125 12-Aug-12 06
Thanks!
Update: This is what I have so far
SELECT count(*) as num_apps, to_date(created_ts,'DD-Mon-RR') as app_date, to_char(created_ts,'HH24') as app_hour
FROM accounts
WHERE To_Date(created_ts,'DD-Mon-RR') >= To_Date('16-Aug-12','DD-Mon-RR')
GROUP BY To_Date(created_ts,'DD-Mon-RR'), To_Char(created_ts,'HH24')
ORDER BY app_date, app_hour

Answer 1

To get the results you want, you will need to create a table (or use a query to generate a "temp" table) and then use a left join to your calculation query to get rows for every hour - even those with 0 volume.
For example, assume I have a table with app_date and app_hour fields. Also assume that this table has a row for every day/hour you wish to report on.
The query would be:
SELECT NVL(c.num_apps,0) as num_apps, t.app_date, t.app_hour
FROM time_table t
LEFT OUTER JOIN
(
SELECT count(*) as num_apps, to_date(created_ts,'DD-Mon-RR') as app_date, to_char(created_ts,'HH24') as app_hour
FROM accounts
WHERE To_Date(created_ts,'DD-Mon-RR') >= To_Date('16-Aug-12','DD-Mon-RR')
GROUP BY To_Date(created_ts,'DD-Mon-RR'), To_Char(created_ts,'HH24')
ORDER BY app_date, app_hour
) c ON (t.app_date = c.app_date AND t.app_hour = c.app_hour)

Answer 2

I believe the best solution is not to create some fancy temporary table but just use this construct:
select level
FROM Dual
CONNECT BY level <= 10
ORDER BY level;
This will give you (in ten rows):
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
For hours interval just little modification:
select 0 as num_apps, (To_Date('16-09-12','DD-MM-RR') + level / 24) as created_ts
FROM dual
CONNECT BY level <= (sysdate - To_Date('16-09-12','DD-MM-RR')) * 24 ;
And just for the fun of it adding solution for you(I didn't try syntax, so I'm sorry for any mistake, but the idea is clear):
SELECT SUM(num_apps) as num_apps, to_date(created_ts,'DD-Mon-RR') as app_date, to_char(created_ts,'HH24') as app_hour
FROM(
SELECT count(*) as num_apps, created_ts
FROM accounts
WHERE To_Date(created_ts,'DD-Mon-RR') >= To_Date('16-09-12','DD-MM-RR')
UNION ALL
select 0 as num_apps, (To_Date('16-09-12','DD-MM-RR') + level / 24) as created_ts
FROM dual
CONNECT BY level <= (sysdate - To_Date('16-09-12','DD-MM-RR')) * 24 ;
)
GROUP BY To_Date(created_ts,'DD-Mon-RR'), To_Char(created_ts,'HH24')
ORDER BY app_date, app_hour
;

Answer 3

You can also use a CASE statement in the SELECT to force the value you want.

Answer 4

It can be useful to have a "sequence table" kicking around, for all sorts of reasons, something that looks like this:
create table dbo.sequence
(
id int not null primary key clustered ,
)
Load it up with million or so rows, covering positive and negative values.
Then, given a table that looks like this
create table dbo.SomeTable
(
account_id int not null primary key clustered ,
date_created date not null ,
time_created time not null ,
)
Your query is then as simple as (in SQL Server):
select year_created = years.id ,
month_created = months.id ,
day_created = days.id ,
hour_created = hours.id ,
volume = t.volume
from ( select * ,
is_leap_year = case
when id % 400 = 0 then 1
when id % 100 = 0 then 0
when id % 4 = 0 then 1
else 0
end
from dbo.sequence
where id between 1980 and year(current_timestamp)
) years
cross join ( select *
from dbo.sequence
where id between 1 and 12
) months
left join ( select *
from dbo.sequence
where id between 1 and 31
) days on days.id <= case months.id
when 2 then 28 + years.is_leap_year
when 4 then 30
when 6 then 30
when 9 then 30
when 11 then 30
else 31
end
cross join ( select *
from dbo.sequence
where id between 0 and 23
) hours
left join ( select date_created ,
hour_created = datepart(hour,time_created ) ,
volume = count(*)
from dbo.SomeTable
group by date_created ,
datepart(hour,time_created)
) t on datepart( year , t.date_created ) = years.id
and datepart( month , t.date_created ) = months.id
and datepart( day , t.date_created ) = days.id
and t.hour_created = hours.id
order by 1,2,3,4

Answer 5

It's not clear to me if created_ts is a datetime or a varchar. If it's a datetime, you shouldn't use to_date; if it's a varchar, you shouldn't use to_char.
Assuming it's a datetime, and borrowing #jakub.petr's FROM Dual CONNECT BY level trick, I suggest:
SELECT count(*) as num_apps, to_char(created_ts,'DD-Mon-RR') as app_date, to_char(created_ts,'HH24') as app_hour
FROM (select level-1 as hour FROM Dual CONNECT BY level <= 24) h
LEFT JOIN accounts a on h.hour = to_number(to_char(a.created_ts,'HH24'))
WHERE created_ts >= To_Date('16-Aug-12','DD-Mon-RR')
GROUP BY trunc(created_ts), h.hour
ORDER BY app_date, app_hour