How can I generate a hierarchy path in SQL that leads to a given node?

Question

In my MS SQL 2008 R2 database I have this table:

TABLE [Hierarchy]
[ParentCategoryId] [uniqueidentifier] NULL,
[ChildCategoryId] [uniqueidentifier] NOT NULL         


        

Answer 1

Here is my solution, Sql Fiddle

DECLARE @child VARCHAR(10) = 'C'

    ;WITH children AS
    (

       SELECT 
         ParentCategoryId,
        CAST(ISNULL(ParentCategoryId + '->' ,'')  + ChildCategoryId AS VARCHAR(4000)) AS Path
       FROM Hierarchy
       WHERE ChildCategoryId =  @child
     UNION ALL
       SELECT 
         t.ParentCategoryId,
         list= CAST(ISNULL(t.ParentCategoryId  + '->' ,'')  + d.Path AS VARCHAR(4000))
       FROM Hierarchy t
       INNER JOIN children  AS d
            ON t.ChildCategoryId = d.ParentCategoryId
     )

    SELECT Path 
    from children c
    WHERE ParentCategoryId IS NULL

Output:

A->D->C 
A->B->C 

---

UPDATE:

@AlexeiMalashkevich, to just get id, you may try this

SQL Fiddle

DECLARE @child VARCHAR(10) = 'C'

;WITH children AS
(

   SELECT 
     ParentCategoryId,
     ChildCategoryId  AS Path
   FROM Hierarchy
   WHERE ChildCategoryId =  @child
 UNION ALL
   SELECT 
     t.ParentCategoryId,
     d.ParentCategoryId 
   FROM Hierarchy t
   INNER JOIN children  AS d
        ON t.ChildCategoryId = d.ParentCategoryId
 )

SELECT DISTINCT PATH
from children c