To find infinite recursive loop in CTE

Question

I\'m not a SQL expert, but if anybody can help me.

I use a recursive CTE to get the values as below.

Child1 --> Parent 1

Parent1 --> Parent 2

Answer 1

Here is the solution for SQL Server:

Table Insert script:

CREATE TABLE MyTable
(
    [ID] INT,
    [ParentID] INT,
    [Name] NVARCHAR(255)
);

INSERT INTO MyTable
(
    [ID],
    [ParentID],
    [Name]
)
VALUES
(1, NULL, 'A root'),
(2, NULL, 'Another root'),
(3, 1, 'Child of 1'),
(4, 3, 'Grandchild of 1'),
(5, 4, 'Great grandchild of 1'),
(6, 1, 'Child of 1'),
(7, 8, 'Child of 8'),
(8, 7, 'Child of 7'), -- This will cause infinite recursion
(9, 1, 'Child of 1');

Script to find the exact records which are the culprit:

;WITH RecursiveCTE
AS (
   -- Get all parents: 
   -- Any record in MyTable table could be an Parent
   -- We don't know here yet which record can involve in an infinite recursion.
   SELECT ParentID AS StartID,
          ID,
          CAST(Name AS NVARCHAR(255)) AS [ParentChildRelationPath]
   FROM MyTable
   UNION ALL

   -- Recursively try finding all the childrens of above parents
   -- Keep on finding it until this child become parent of above parent.
   -- This will bring us back in the circle to parent record which is being
   -- keep in the StartID column in recursion
   SELECT RecursiveCTE.StartID,
          t.ID,
          CAST(RecursiveCTE.[ParentChildRelationPath] + ' -> ' + t.Name AS NVARCHAR(255)) AS [ParentChildRelationPath]
   FROM RecursiveCTE
       INNER JOIN MyTable AS t
           ON t.ParentID = RecursiveCTE.ID
   WHERE RecursiveCTE.StartID != RecursiveCTE.ID)

-- FInd the ones which causes the infinite recursion
SELECT StartID,
       [ParentChildRelationPath],
       RecursiveCTE.ID
FROM RecursiveCTE
WHERE StartID = ID
OPTION (MAXRECURSION 0);

Output of above query: