Recursive same-table query in SQL Server 2008

Question

I have the following table in a SQL Server 2008 database:

Id  Name       ParentFolder
--  ----       ------------
1   Europe     NULL
2   Asia       NULL
3           


        

Answer 1

Try this one:

    DECLARE @tbl TABLE (
         Id INT
        ,[Name] VARCHAR(20)
        ,ParentId INT
        )

    INSERT INTO @tbl( Id, Name, ParentId )
    VALUES
     (1, 'Europe', NULL)
    ,(2, 'Asia',   NULL)
    ,(3, 'Germany', 1)
    ,(4, 'UK',      1)
    ,(5, 'China',   2)
    ,(6, 'India',   2)
    ,(7, 'Scotland', 4)
    ,(8, 'Edinburgh', 7)
    ,(9, 'Leith', 8)

    ;
WITH  abcd
        AS (
              -- anchor
            SELECT  id, [Name], ParentID,
                    CAST(([Name]) AS VARCHAR(1000)) AS "Path"
            FROM    @tbl
            WHERE   ParentId IS NULL
            UNION ALL
              --recursive member
            SELECT  t.id, t.[Name], t.ParentID,
                    CAST((a.path + '/' + t.Name) AS VARCHAR(1000)) AS "Path"
            FROM    @tbl AS t
                    JOIN abcd AS a
                      ON t.ParentId = a.id
           )
SELECT * FROM abcd

Answer 2

Sounds like you should checkout CLR support for Sql Sever.

CLR integration means that you can now write stored procedures, triggers, user-defined types, user-defined functions (scalar and table-valued), and user-defined aggregate functions using any .NET Framework language, including Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and Microsoft Visual C#.

Answer 3

I tried the solution above, but found that this only worked for me to 2 levels. (Perhaps I have not understood or missed something.)

In order to get the fully qualified path for m solution I have succeeded with this custom function:

CREATE FUNCTION GetFQN(@recid int)
RETURNS VARCHAR(1000)

AS

BEGIN
    DECLARE @path AS VARCHAR(1000)
    DECLARE @parent_recid AS INT

    SET @path           =   (SELECT BranchName FROM Branches WHERE Recid = @recid)
    SET @parent_recid   =   (SELECT recid_parent FROM Branches WHERE Recid = @recid)


    WHILE @parent_recid != -1
    BEGIN
        SET @path = (SELECT BranchName FROM Branches WHERE recid = @parent_recid) + '/' + @path 
        SET @parent_recid = (SELECT recid_parent FROM Branches WHERE recid = @parent_recid)
    END

    RETURN (@Path)
END

Answer 4

I'm not sure if this will work in your case, but in this example http://www.pure-performance.com/2009/03/managing-hierarchical-data-in-sql/ there is something about using an extra column, called lineage.

I have used this method with success.