SQL Server testing for 1 value in multiple columns - sql-server

I am testing a table and would like to find out if 10 columns of that table (integer fields) EQUAL the value 999. can ANY or the IN clause be used for this?

At a pure guess, and this is pseudo-SQL, but
SELECT {Columns}
FROM {YourTable}
WHERE '999' IN ({First Column},{Second Column},{Third Column},...,{Tenth Column});

The only way to test this is something like this:
select * from table1 where i1=999 and i1=i2 and i2=i3 and i3=i4 and i4=i5 and i5=16 and i6=i7 and i7=i8 and i8=i9;
where iX are column names. This will return rows which match all the value for all 9 columns.
TSQL is a MS implementation of various SQL standards.

Related

Save result of select statement into wide table SQL Server

I have read about the possibilty to create wide tables (30,000 columns) in SQL server (1)
But how do I actually save the result of a select statement (one that has 1024+ columns) into a wide table?
Because if I do:
Select *
Into wide_table
From (
**Select statement with 1024+ columns**
) b
I get: CREATE TABLE failed because column 'c157' in table 'wide_table' exceeds the maximum of 1024 columns.
And, will I be able to query that table and all it's columns in a regular manner?
Thank you for your help!
You are right you are allowed to created table with 30 000 columns, but you can SELECT or INSERT 'only' 4096 column in one clause:
So, in case of SELECT you will need to get the columns in parts or concatenate the results. All of this does not seem to be practical and easier and performance efficient.
If you are going to have so many columns, maybe it will be better to try to UNPIVOT the data and normalized it further.

how to use all columns (*) in select statement from different tables using UNION ALL?

I have 10 tables of which 4 tables have 99 columns and 6 tables have 100 columns. I have to combine using UNION ALL. when executing SQL query getting below error
Msg 205, Level 16, State 1, Line 6
All queries combined using a UNION, INTERSECT or EXCEPT operator must have an equal number of expressions in their target lists.
I understood the reason of error is for not same number of columns. I tried using NULL as Column100 but still getting same error.
please can anyone suggest me how to use * and UNION ALL in SQL query.
Thanks.
If the extra column happens to be at the beginning or end and the other columns are in exactly the same order, then you can add the column manually:
select t99.*, 't99' as col
from t99
union all
select t100.*
from t100;
But really, is it that hard to list the columns? An explicit column list is much less prone to error. And, it will work regardless of where the 100th column appears.
You can get the list in SQL Server Management Studio by clicking on the table name. You can also run a query such as:
select column_name
from information_schema.columns
where table_name = 't99';
And then use the column names to construct the query (I often use a spreadsheet for this purpose).
UNION requres that columns before and after it MATCH.
You can not do union of 99 columns and then 100 columns. You have to either provide dummy value for 100th column that do not exist in that table, or tell DB to skipp that column.
So add to the smaller table select:
NULL AS missing-column-name
Or list all the common columns by hand omitting columns that do not exists in both.

Simple SQL approach to transform columns into rows (SQL Server 2005 or 2008)

On SQL Server, executing the following SQL Statement:
SELECT 1,2,3
will return
(no column name) (no column name) (no column name)
1 2 3
Note that the columns don't have names and the number of columns is not definite (it can have 1 column or it can also have > 100 columns).
My question is - Does anybody know of a simple approach so I can get the following result:
(no column name)
1
2
3
What I'm really trying to do is come up with a SQL similar to the one below. I wish I could execute it as it is but of course we know that the Select 1,2,3 won't work, we have to somehow transform that into a table with the values in each row.
SELECT *
FROM NORTHWIND.DBO.CUSTOMERS
WHERE EMPLOYEEID IN (*Select 1,2,3*); -- *Select 1,2,3 will not work
Currently I'm thinking of creating a user defined function that returns a table by iterating through each column and dynamically creating multiple SQL statements combined by UNION similar to: SELECT 1 Col1 UNION SELECT 2 UNION SELECT 3. I'm not a fan of dynamic SQL and looping procedures in my queries as it can be expensive to process especially for an application with expected usage of 1000+ per minute. Also, there is that concern for SQL Injection Attacks with Dynamic SQL when I start using strings instead of integer values. I'm also trying to avoid temporary tables as it can even be more expensive to process.
Any ideas? Can we use UNPIVOT without the need for looping through the indefinite number of columns and dynamically creating the SQL text to execute it and transform the columnar values into rows? What about Common Table Expressions?
Get rid of the select and just specify a list of values:
SELECT * FROM NORTHWIND.DBO.CUSTOMERS
WHERE EMPLOYEEID IN (1,2,3);

LIKE vs CONTAINS on SQL Server

Which one of the following queries is faster (LIKE vs CONTAINS)?
SELECT * FROM table WHERE Column LIKE '%test%';
or
SELECT * FROM table WHERE Contains(Column, "test");
The second (assuming you means CONTAINS, and actually put it in a valid query) should be faster, because it can use some form of index (in this case, a full text index). Of course, this form of query is only available if the column is in a full text index. If it isn't, then only the first form is available.
The first query, using LIKE, will be unable to use an index, since it starts with a wildcard, so will always require a full table scan.
The CONTAINS query should be:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE CONTAINS(Column, 'test');
Having run both queries on a SQL Server 2012 instance, I can confirm the first query was fastest in my case.
The query with the LIKE keyword showed a clustered index scan.
The CONTAINS also had a clustered index scan with additional operators for the full text match and a merge join.
I think that CONTAINS took longer and used Merge because you had a dash("-") in your query adventure-works.com.
The dash is a break word so the CONTAINS searched the full-text index for adventure and than it searched for works.com and merged the results.
Also try changing from this:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE Contains(Column, "test") > 0;
To this:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE Contains(Column, '"*test*"') > 0;
The former will find records with values like "this is a test" and "a test-case is the plan".
The latter will also find records with values like "i am testing this" and "this is the greatest".
I didn't understand actually what is going on with "Contains" keyword. I set a full text index on a column. I run some queries on the table.
Like returns 450.518 rows but contains not and like's result is correct
SELECT COL FROM TBL WHERE COL LIKE '%41%' --450.518 rows
SELECT COL FROM TBL WHERE CONTAINS(COL,N'41') ---40 rows
SELECT COL FROM TBL WHERE CONTAINS(COL,N'"*41*"') -- 220.364 rows

Best index(es) to use for an OR Statement in SQL Server

I have a table which has a bunch of columns but the two relevant ones are:
Due_Amount MONEY
Bounced_Due_Amount MONEY
I have a SQL query like the following
SELECT * FROM table WHERE (Due_Amount > 0 OR Bounced_Due_Amount > 0)
Would the best index to put on this table for SQL Server 2008 be an index which includes both columns in the index, or should I put an separate index on each column?
An Index can't be used on an OR like that. try this:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE Due_Amount > 0
UNION ALL
SELECT * FROM table Bounced_Due_Amount > 0
--use "UNION" if Due_Amount and Bounced_Due_Amount could both >0 at any one time
have an index on Due_Amount and another on Bounced_Due_Amount.
It might be better to redesign your table. Without knowing your business logic or table, I'm going to guess that you could have a "Bounced" Y/N or 1/0 char/bit column and just a "Due_Amount" column. Add an index on that "Due_Amount" and the query would just be:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE Due_Amount > 0
you could still differentiate between a Bounced or not row. This will not work if you need to have both a bounced and non-bounced due amount at the same time.
My guess is that you would be better off with an index on each individual column. Having it on both won't help any more than having it on just the first column unless you have other queries that would use the compound index.
Your best bet is to try the query with an index on one column, an index on the other column, and two indexes - one on each column. Do some tests with each (on real data, not test data) and see which works best. Take a look at the query plans to understand why.
Depending on the specific data (both size and cardinality) SQL Server may end up using one, both, or possibly even neither index. The only way to know for sure is to test them each.
Technically, you can have an index on a persisted computed column and use the computed column instead of the OR condition in the query, see Creating Indexes on Computed Columns:
alter table [table] add Max_Due_Amount as
case
when Due_Amount > Bounced_Due_Amount the Due_Ammount
else Bounced_Due_Amount
end
persisted;
go
create index idxTableMaxDueAmount on table (Max_Due_Amount );
go
SELECT * FROM table WHERE Max_Due_Amount > 0;
But in general I'd recommend using the UNION approach like KM suggested.
Specifically for this query, it would be best to create an index on both columns in the order they are used in the where clause. Otherwise the index might not be used.

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