Interview - Detect/remove duplicate entries - sql

how to detect/remove duplicate entries from a database in a table where there is no primary key ?
[If we use 'DISTINCT' how do we know which record is the correct one and duplicate one ? ]

delete f
from
(
select ROW_NUMBER()
over (partition by
YourFirstPossibleDuplicateField,
YourSecondPossibleDuplicateField
order by WhateverFieldYouWantSortedBy) as DelId
from YourTable
) as f
where DelId > 1

I created a view where DISTINCT actually was not a part of the query, but PARTITION. I needed the most recent entry to records with the same Ordernum and RecordType fields, discarding the others. The partitions are ordered by date, and then the top row is selected, like this:
SELECT *, ROW_NUMBER()
OVER (PARTITION BY OrderNum, RecordType ORDER BY DateChanged DESC) rn
FROM HistoryTable SELECT * FROM q WHERE rn = 1

If we use 'DISTINCT' how do we know which record is the correct one
and duplicate one?
If you have duplicate rows then doesn't matter which duplicate is picked because they are all the same!
I guess when you say "there is no primary key" that you actually mean there is no simple single-column 'surrogate' candidate key such as an incrementing sequence of integers, preferably with no gaps, but that there is a multi-column compound 'natural' candidate key (though does not comprise all the columns).
If this is the case, you'd look for something to break ties e.g. a column named DateChanged as per #Dave's answer. Otherwise, you need to pick am arbitrary row e.g. the answer by #Surfer513 does this using the ROW_NUMBER() windowed function over (YourFirstPossibleDuplicateField, YourSecondPossibleDuplicateField) (i.e. your natural key) then picking the duplicate that got arbitrarily assigned the row number 1.

Related

How to remove duplicate data from microsoft sql database(on the result only)

the column code has values that have duplicate on it , i do want to remove the duplicate of that row.
for example i want to remove the duplicates of column code as well the row that has duplicate on it. it doesent matter if the other column has duplicate but i do want to base it on the code column. what sql query can i use.? Thank you
this is the table I am working to.
as you can see there are isdeleted column that has value of 1 on them. I only want the recored with a value of 0 on them
here is a sample record, in here you can see that row 1 has a isdeleted value of 1, which mean that this record is deleted and i only need the row 2 of this code.
You could use the windowing function ROW_NUMBER() to single out the last entry per code like in:
SELECT code, shortdesc, longdesc, isobsolete, effectivefromdate
FROM (
SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY code ORDER BY effectivefromdate DESC) AS rn, *
FROM CodingSuite_STG
WHERE isobsolete=1 AND isdeleted=0
) AS cs
WHERE rn=1
ORDER BY effectivefromdate
Explanation:
Core of the operation is a "sub-query". That is a "table-like" expression generated by having a SELECT clause surrounded by parentheses and followed by a table name like:
( SELECT * FROM CodingSuite_STG WHERE iobsolete=1 ) AS cs
For the outer SELECT it will appear like a table with the name "cs".
Within this sub-query I placed a special function (a "window function") consisting of two parts:
ROWN_NUMBER() OVER ( PARTITION BY code ORDER BY effectivefromdate DESC) AS rn
The ROW_NUMBER() function returns a sequential number for a certain "window" of records defined by the immediately following OVER ( ... ) clause. The PARTITION BY inside it defines a group division scheme (similar to GROUP BY), so the row numbers start from 1 for each partitioned group. ORDER BY determines the numbering order within each group. So, with entries having the same code value ROW_NUMBER() will supply the number sequence 1, 2, 3... for each record, with 1 being assigned to the record with the highest value of effectivefromdate because of ORDER BY effectivefromdate DESC.
All we need to do in the outer SELECT clause is to pick up those records from the sub-query cs that have an rn-value of 1 and we're done!

Select 1 record from each of 2 duplicate records

I have a messaging application which regularly inserts duplicate messages in BigQuery. The table name is 'metrics' and it has the following fields:
The Row column is a bigquery ROW_NUMBER() which is not part of the metrics table. All the other columns except batch_id form 2 duplicate rows for each message_id. You can see that message_id is repeated twice, and for each insertion 1 different batch_id is created.
I want the output like this, only 3 rows should be in the select result with 3 different message_id instead of the 6 rows i get here. It would be better if the row which had been inserted first among the duplicates for each message id would be selected(as the start_time and end_time is same for the duplicates i am not sure how to find that). I am new to Bigquery seen some examples in sql but not in Bigquery so any help is appreciated
Thanks for your help.
This deduping process becomes part of your business logic, so pick one method and stay consistent. I would do something like this:
with data as (
select
*,
row_number() over(partition by message_id order by batch_id asc) as rn
from `project.dataset.table`
)
select * from data where rn = 1
This query selects the row that has the "minimum" batch_id for each message_id. Your batch_id seem random/hashed (and not necessarily in a specific order), so this might or might work for your purposes, but it should reproduce the same results everytime (unless a 3rd record shows up, then it could begin to vary).

How to break ties when comparing columns in SQL

I am trying to delete duplicates in Postgres. I am using this as the base of my query:
DELETE FROM case_file as p
WHERE EXISTS (
SELECT FROM case_file as p1
WHERE p1.serial_no = p.serial_no
AND p1.cfh_status_dt < p.cfh_status_dt
);
It works well, except that when the dates cfh_status_dt are equal then neither of the records are removed.
For rows that have the same serial_no and the date is the same, I would like to keep the one that has a registration_no (if any do, this column also has NULLS).
Is there a way I can do this with all one query, possibly with a case statement or another simple comparison?
DELETE FROM case_file AS p
WHERE id NOT IN (
SELECT DISTINCT ON (serial_no) id -- id = PK
FROM case_file
ORDER BY serial_no, cfh_status_dt DESC, registration_no
);
This keeps the (one) latest row per serial_no, choosing the smallest registration_no if there are multiple candidates.
NULL sorts last in default ascending order. So any row with a not-null registration_no is preferred.
If you want the greatest registration_no instead, to still sort NULL values last, use:
...
ORDER BY serial_no, cfh_status_dt DESC, registration_no DESC NULLS LAST
See:
Select first row in each GROUP BY group?
Sort by column ASC, but NULL values first?
If you have no PK (PRIMARY KEY) or other UNIQUE NOT NULL (combination of) column(s) you can use for this purpose, you can fall back to ctid. See:
How do I (or can I) SELECT DISTINCT on multiple columns?
NOT IN is typically not the most efficient way. But this deals with duplicates involving NULL values. See:
How to delete duplicate rows without unique identifier
If there are many duplicates - and you can afford to do so! - it can be (much) more efficient to create a new, pristine table of survivors and replace the old table, instead of deleting the majority of rows in the existing table.
Or create a temporary table of survivors, truncate the old and insert from the temp table. This way depending objects like views or FK constraints can stay in place. See:
How to delete duplicate entries?
Surviving rows are simply:
SELECT DISTINCT ON (serial_no) *
FROM case_file
ORDER BY serial_no, cfh_status_dt DESC, registration_no;

Logically determine a composite key in SQL

I'm working with an MSSQL table that does not have a primary or unique key contstraint defined. There are two fields, lets call them xId and yId, that I believe together would be a composite key, but I want to confirm this by examining the data.
I'm thinking that I should be able to write a SQL count statement that I can compare to the total number of records on the table that would logically determine if the combination of xId and yId (or a third column id necessary) could in fact act as a composite key. However, I'm having trouble coming up with the right GROUP BY or other type of clause that would confirm or disprove this.
Any ideas?
Use group by and having:
select xid,yid
from table
group by xid,yid
having count(1) > 1
This will show any pairs that are non-unique, so if there are no rows returned its a good key.
Just do a count of the total rows of the table, and then do
select count(1)
from(
select xid,yid
from table
group by xid,yid
)a;
if all pairs of xid and yid form a unique identifier, then the two numbers will be the same.
Alternatively, you could count the number of distinct pairs of xid and yid and find the largest such number:
select max(num_rows)
from(
select xid,yid,count(1) as num_rows
from table
group by xid,yid
)a;
The result of this query is 1 if and only if (xid,yid) pairs form a unique identifier for your table.
this will list all the problem combinations (if any) of xid,yid:
SELECT
COUNT(*),xid,yid
FROM YourTable
GROUP BY xid,yid
HAVING COUNT(*)>1

Getting the last record in SQL in WHERE condition

i have loanTable that contain two field loan_id and status
loan_id status
==============
1 0
2 9
1 6
5 3
4 5
1 4 <-- How do I select this??
4 6
In this Situation i need to show the last Status of loan_id 1 i.e is status 4. Can please help me in this query.
Since the 'last' row for ID 1 is neither the minimum nor the maximum, you are living in a state of mild confusion. Rows in a table have no order. So, you should be providing another column, possibly the date/time when each row is inserted, to provide the sequencing of the data. Another option could be a separate, automatically incremented column which records the sequence in which the rows are inserted. Then the query can be written.
If the extra column is called status_id, then you could write:
SELECT L1.*
FROM LoanTable AS L1
WHERE L1.Status_ID = (SELECT MAX(Status_ID)
FROM LoanTable AS L2
WHERE L2.Loan_ID = 1);
(The table aliases L1 and L2 could be omitted without confusing the DBMS or experienced SQL programmers.)
As it stands, there is no reliable way of knowing which is the last row, so your query is unanswerable.
Does your table happen to have a primary id or a timestamp? If not then what you want is not really possible.
If yes then:
SELECT TOP 1 status
FROM loanTable
WHERE loan_id = 1
ORDER BY primaryId DESC
-- or
-- ORDER BY yourTimestamp DESC
I assume that with "last status" you mean the record that was inserted most recently? AFAIK there is no way to make such a query unless you add timestamp into your table where you store the date and time when the record was added. RDBMS don't keep any internal order of the records.
But if last = last inserted, that's not possible for current schema, until a PK addition:
select top 1 status, loan_id
from loanTable
where loan_id = 1
order by id desc -- PK
Use a data reader. When it exits the while loop it will be on the last row. As the other posters stated unless you put a sort on the query, the row order could change. Even if there is a clustered index on the table it might not return the rows in that order (without a sort on the clustered index).
SqlDataReader rdr = SQLcmd.ExecuteReader();
while (rdr.Read())
{
}
string lastVal = rdr[0].ToString()
rdr.Close();
You could also use a ROW_NUMBER() but that requires a sort and you cannot use ROW_NUMBER() directly in the Where. But you can fool it by creating a derived table. The rdr solution above is faster.
In oracle database this is very simple.
select * from (select * from loanTable order by rownum desc) where rownum=1
Hi if this has not been solved yet.
To get the last record for any field from a table the easiest way would be to add an ID to each record say pID. Also say that in your table you would like to hhet the last record for each 'Name', run the simple query
SELECT Name, MAX(pID) as LastID
INTO [TableName]
FROM [YourTableName]
GROUP BY [Name]/[Any other field you would like your last records to appear by]
You should now have a table containing the Names in one column and the last available ID for that Name.
Now you can use a join to get the other details from your primary table, say this is some price or date then run the following:
SELECT a.*,b.Price/b.date/b.[Whatever other field you want]
FROM [TableName] a LEFT JOIN [YourTableName]
ON a.Name = b.Name and a.LastID = b.pID
This should then give you the last records for each Name, for the first record run the same queries as above just replace the Max by Min above.
This should be easy to follow and should run quicker as well
If you don't have any identifying columns you could use to get the insert order. You can always do it like this. But it's hacky, and not very pretty.
select
t.row1,
t.row2,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY t.[count]) AS rownum from (
select
tab.row1,
tab.row2,
1 as [count]
from table tab) t
So basically you get the 'natural order' if you can call it that, and add some column with all the same data. This can be used to sort by the 'natural order', giving you an opportunity to place a row number column on the next query.
Personally, if the system you are using hasn't got a time stamp/identity column, and the current users are using the 'natural order', I would quickly add a column and use this query to create some sort of time stamp/incremental key. Rather than risking having some automation mechanism change the 'natural order', breaking the data needed.
I think this code may help you:
WITH cte_Loans
AS
(
SELECT LoanID
,[Status]
,ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY (SELECT 1)) AS RN
FROM LoanTable
)
SELECT LoanID
,[Status]
FROM LoanTable L1
WHERE RN = ( SELECT max(RN)
FROM LoanTable L2
WHERE L2.LoanID = L1.LoanID)