SQL Server: How to limit CTE recursion to rows just recursivly added?

Question

Simpler Example

Let\'s try a simpler example, so people can wrap their heads around the concepts, and have a practical example that you can copy&paste into SQL

Answer 1

Have you tried constructing a path in the CTE and using it to identify ancestors?

You can then subtract the descendant node depth from the ancestor node depth to calculate the GenerationsRemoved column, like so...

DECLARE @Nodes TABLE
(
    NodeId varchar(50) PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
    ParentNodeId varchar(50) NULL
)

INSERT INTO @Nodes (NodeId, ParentNodeId) VALUES ('A', NULL)
INSERT INTO @Nodes (NodeId, ParentNodeId) VALUES ('B', 'A')
INSERT INTO @Nodes (NodeId, ParentNodeId) VALUES ('C', 'B')

DECLARE @Hierarchy TABLE
(
    NodeId varchar(50) PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
    ParentNodeId varchar(50) NULL,
    Depth int NOT NULL,
    [Path] varchar(2000) NOT NULL
)

WITH Hierarchy AS
(
    --initialization
    SELECT NodeId, ParentNodeId, 0 AS Depth, CONVERT(varchar(2000), NodeId) AS [Path]
    FROM @Nodes
    WHERE ParentNodeId IS NULL

    UNION ALL

    --recursive execution
    SELECT n.NodeId, n.ParentNodeId, p.Depth + 1, CONVERT(varchar(2000), p.[Path] + '/' + n.NodeId)
    FROM Hierarchy AS p
    INNER JOIN @Nodes AS n
    ON p.NodeId = n.ParentNodeId
)
INSERT INTO @Hierarchy
SELECT *
FROM Hierarchy

SELECT parent.NodeId AS AncestorNodeId, child.NodeId AS DescendantNodeId, child.Depth - parent.Depth AS GenerationsRemoved
FROM @Hierarchy AS parent
INNER JOIN @Hierarchy AS child
ON child.[Path] LIKE parent.[Path] + '/%'