'SUB' in T-SQL JOIN? - sql-server

I'm trying to update a query for a client to add more functionality on a MS-SQL Server 2014 database. The query was written by someone else, and is currently working.
The FROM part of the query contains the following:
FROM Project Phs
LEFT JOIN (SELECT * FROM Stage WHERE Status >=5 ) SUB
ON pmsProject = phs.prjPhase
LEFT JOIN InvoiceGroup ON phs.prjInvoiceGroup = igKey
LEFT JOIN Vec ON vecKey = igClient
LEFT JOIN Project Prj ON Prj.prjkey = Phs.prjproject
LEFT JOIN Contact ON prj.prjClientContact1 = cntkey
LEFT JOIN Project L2 ON L2.prjkey = phs.prjPhaseLevel2
What does SUB on line 2 do here?
I can't find SUB in the JOIN documentation, SUB is not a reserved word in T-SQL, and SUB does not appear anywhere else in the (300 line) query. Thanks.

Sub is nothing more than a table alias from which the columns from the stage table can be referenced.
The join could be written as sub.pmsProject=phs.prjphase.
It's similar to phs for project and prj for project.
All fields from the stage table can be refereed to as sub.fieldname. This is necessary when tables have fields with the same name so the engine knows specifically what table you want to access data from.
Aliases not only make it easier to code, it makes the code easier to read instead of having long drawn out table names.

This is simply an alias for the (SELECT * FROM Stage WHERE Status >=5 ) subquery so that it can be referenced later. I do not see it referenced anywhere else in the query you have provided, but you may have trimmed off a portion that contains it, or it may have been removed previously.

Related

Is there an equivalent to OR clause in CONTAINSTABLE - FULL TEXT INDEX

I am trying to find a solution in order to improve the String searching process and I selected FULL-TEXT INDEX Strategy.
However, after implementing it, I still can see there is a performance hit when it comes to search by using multiple strings using multiple Full-Text Index tables with OR clauses.
(E.x. WHERE CONTAINS(F.*,'%Gayan%') OR CONTAINS(P.FirstName,'%John%'))
As a solution, I am trying to use CONTAINSTABLE expecting a performance improvement.
Now, I am facing an issue with CONTAINSTABLE when it comes to joining tables with a LEFT JOIN
Please go through the example below.
Query 1
SELECT F.Name,p.*
FROM P.Role PR
INNER JOIN P.Building F ON PR.PID = F.PID
LEFT JOIN CONTAINSTABLE(P.Building,*,'%John%') AS FFTIndex ON F.ID = FFTIndex.[Key]
LEFT JOIN P.Relationship PRSHIP ON PR.id = prship.ToRoleID
LEFT JOIN P.Role PR2 ON PRSHIP.ToRoleID = PR2.ID
LEFT JOIN P.Person p ON pr2.ID = p.PID
LEFT JOIN CONTAINSTABLE(P.Person,FirstName,'%John%') AS PFTIndex ON P.ID = PFTIndex.[Key]
WHERE F.Name IS NOT NULL
This produces the below result.
Query 2
SELECT F.Name,p.*
FROM P.Role PR
INNER JOIN P.Building F ON PR.PID = F.PID
INNER JOIN P.Relationship PRSHIP ON PR.id = prship.ToRoleID
INNER JOIN P.Role PR2 ON PRSHIP.ToRoleID = PR2.ID
INNER JOIN P.Person p ON pr2.ID = p.PID
WHERE CONTAINS(F.*,'%Gayan%') OR CONTAINS(P.FirstName,'%John%')
AND F.Name IS NOT NULL
Result
Expectation
To use query 1 in a way that works as the behavior of an SQL SERVER OR clause. As I can understand Query 1's CONTAINSTABLE, joins the data with the building table, and the rest of the results are going to ignore so that the CONTAINSTABLE of the Person table gets data that already contains the keyword filtered from the building table.
If the keyword = Building, I want to match the keyword in both the tables regardless of searching a saved record in both the tables. Having a record in each table is enough.
Summary
Query 2 performs well but is creates a slowness when the words in the indexes are growing. Query 1 seems optimized(When it comes to multiple online resources and MS Documentation),
however, it does not give me the expected output.
Is there any way to solve this problem?
I am not strictly attached to CONTAINSTABLE. Suggesting another optimization method will also be considerable.
Thank you.
Hard to say definitively without your full data set but a couple of options to explore
Remove Invalid % Wildcards
Why are you using '%SearchTerm%'? Does performance improve if you use the search term without the wildcards (%)? If you want a word that matches a prefix, try something like
WHERE CONTAINS (String,'"SearchTerm*"')
Try Temp Tables
My guess is CONTAINS is slightly faster than CONTAINSTABLE as it doesn't calculate a rank, but I don't know if anyone has ever attempted to benchmark it. Either way, I'd try saving off the matches to a temp table before joining up to the rest of the tables. This will allow the optimizer to create a better execution plan
SELECT ID INTO #Temp
FROM YourTable
WHERE CONTAINS (String,'"SearchTerm"')
SELECT *
FROM #Temp
INNER JOIN...
Optimize Full Text Index by Removing Noisy Words
You might find you have some noisy words aka words that reoccur many times in your data that are meaningless like "the" or perhaps some business jargon. Adding these to your stop list will mean your full text index will ignore them, making your index smaller thus faster
The query below will list indexed words with the most frequent at the top
Select *
From sys.dm_fts_index_keywords(Db_Id(),Object_Id('dbo.YourTable') /*Replace with your table name*/)
Order By document_count Desc
This OR That Criteria
For your WHERE CONTAINS(F.*,'%Gayan%') OR CONTAINS(P.FirstName,'%John%') criteria where you want this or that, is tricky. OR clauses generally perform even when using simple equality operators.
I'd try either doing two queries and union the results like:
SELECT * FROM Table1 F
/*Other joins and stuff*/
WHERE CONTAINS(F.*,'%Gayan%')
UNION
SELECT * FROM Table2 P
/*Other joins and stuff*/
WHERE CONTAINS(P.FirstName,'%John%')
OR this is much more work, but you could load all your data into giant denormalized table with all your columns. Then apply a full text index to that table and adjust your search criteria that way. It'd probably be the fastest method searching, but then you'd have to ensure the data is sync between the denormalized table and the underlying normalized tables
SELECT B.*,P.* INTO DenormalizedTable
FROM Building AS B
INNER JOIN People AS P
CREATE FULL TEXT INDEX ft ON DenormalizedTable
etc...

SQL Server Syntax Error: Multipart Identifier Not Bound [duplicate]

I continually get these errors when I try to update tables based on another table. I end up rewriting the query, change the order of joins, change some groupings and then it eventually works, but I just don't quite get it.
What is a 'multi-part identifier'?
When is a 'multi-part identifier' not able to be bound?
What is it being bound to anyway?
In what cases will this error occur?
What are the best ways to prevent it?
The specific error from SQL Server 2005 is:
The multi-part identifier "..." could not be bound.
Here is an example:
SELECT * FROM [MainDB].[dbo].[Company]
WHERE [MainDB].[dbo].[Company].[CompanyName] = 'StackOverflow'
The actual error:
Msg 4104, Level 16, State 1, Line 2 The multi-part identifier
"MainDB.dbo.Company.CompanyName" could not be bound.
A multipart identifier is any description of a field or table that contains multiple parts - for instance MyTable.SomeRow - if it can't be bound that means there's something wrong with it - either you've got a simple typo, or a confusion between table and column. It can also be caused by using reserved words in your table or field names and not surrounding them with [].
It can also be caused by not including all of the required columns in the target table.
Something like redgate sql prompt is brilliant for avoiding having to manually type these (it even auto-completes joins based on foreign keys), but isn't free. SQL server 2008 supports intellisense out of the box, although it isn't quite as complete as the redgate version.
Actually sometimes when you are updating one table from another table's data, I think one of the common issues that cause this error, is when you use your table abbreviations incorrectly or when they are not needed. The correct statement is below:
Update Table1
Set SomeField = t2.SomeFieldValue
From Table1 t1
Inner Join Table2 as t2
On t1.ID = t2.ID
Notice that SomeField column from Table1 doesn't have the t1 qualifier as t1.SomeField but is just SomeField.
If one tries to update it by specifying t1.SomeField the statement will return the multi-part error that you have noticed.
It's probably a typo. Look for the places in your code where you call [schema].[TableName] (basically anywhere you reference a field) and make sure everything is spelled correctly.
Personally, I try to avoid this by using aliases for all my tables. It helps tremendously when you can shorten a long table name to an acronym of it's description (i.e. WorkOrderParts -> WOP), and also makes your query more readable.
Edit: As an added bonus, you'll save TONS of keystrokes when all you have to type is a three or four-letter alias vs. the schema, table, and field names all together.
Binding = your textual representation of a specific column gets mapped to a physical column in some table, in some database, on some server.
Multipart identifier could be: MyDatabase.dbo.MyTable. If you get any of these identifiers wrong, then you have a multipart identifier that cannot be mapped.
The best way to avoid it is to write the query right the first time, or use a plugin for management studio that provides intellisense and thus help you out by avoiding typos.
I found that I get these a lot when I try to abbreviate, such as:
Table1 t1, Table2 t2
where t1.ID = t2.ID
Changing it to:
Table1, Table2
where Table1.ID = Table2.ID
Makes the query work and not throw the error.
You probably have a typo. For instance, if you have a table named Customer in a database named Sales, you could refer to it as Sales..Customer (although it is better to refer to it including the owner name (dbo is the default owner) like Sales.dbo.Customer.
If you typed Sales...Customer, you might have gotten the message you got.
If you are sure that it is not a typo spelling-wise, perhaps it is a typo case-wise.
What collation are you using? Check it.
When updating tables make sure you do not reference the field your updating via the alias.
I just had the error with the following code
update [page]
set p.pagestatusid = 1
from [page] p
join seed s on s.seedid = p.seedid
where s.providercode = 'agd'
and p.pagestatusid = 0
I had to remove the alias reference in the set statement so it reads like this
update [page]
set pagestatusid = 1
from [page] p
join seed s on s.seedid = p.seedid
where s.providercode = 'agd'
and p.pagestatusid = 0
Adding table alias in front Set field causes this problem in my case.
Right
Update Table1
Set SomeField = t2.SomeFieldValue
From Table1 t1
Inner Join Table2 as t2
On t1.ID = t2.ID
Wrong
Update Table1
Set t1.SomeField = t2.SomeFieldValue
From Table1 t1
Inner Join Table2 as t2
On t1.ID = t2.ID
I had this issue and it turned out to be an incorrect table alias. Correcting this resolved the issue.
Mine was putting the schema on the table Alias by mistake:
SELECT * FROM schema.CustomerOrders co
WHERE schema.co.ID = 1 -- oops!
I had P.PayeeName AS 'Payer' --,
and the two comment lines threw this error
I actually forgot to join the table to the others that's why i got the error
Supposed to be this way:
CREATE VIEW reserved_passangers AS
SELECT dbo.Passenger.PassName, dbo.Passenger.Address1, dbo.Passenger.Phone
FROM dbo.Passenger, dbo.Reservation, dbo.Flight
WHERE (dbo.Passenger.PassNum = dbo.Reservation.PassNum) and
(dbo.Reservation.Flightdate = 'January 15 2004' and Flight.FlightNum =562)
And not this way:
CREATE VIEW reserved_passangers AS
SELECT dbo.Passenger.PassName, dbo.Passenger.Address1, dbo.Passenger.Phone
FROM dbo.Passenger, dbo.Reservation
WHERE (dbo.Passenger.PassNum = dbo.Reservation.PassNum) and
(dbo.Reservation.Flightdate = 'January 15 2004' and Flight.FlightNum = 562)
Error Code
FROM
dbo.Category C LEFT OUTER JOIN
dbo.SubCategory SC ON C.categoryID = SC.CategoryID AND C.IsActive = 'True' LEFT OUTER JOIN
dbo.Module M ON SC.subCategoryID = M.subCategoryID AND SC.IsActive = 'True' LEFT OUTER JOIN
dbo.SubModule SM ON M.ModuleID = SM.ModuleID AND M.IsActive = 'True' AND SM.IsActive = 'True' LEFT OUTER JOIN
dbo.trainer ON dbo.trainer.TopicID =dbo.SubModule.subModuleID
Solution Code
FROM
dbo.Category C LEFT OUTER JOIN
dbo.SubCategory SC ON C.categoryID = SC.CategoryID AND C.IsActive = 'True' LEFT OUTER JOIN
dbo.Module M ON SC.subCategoryID = M.subCategoryID AND SC.IsActive = 'True' LEFT OUTER JOIN
dbo.SubModule SM ON M.ModuleID = SM.ModuleID AND M.IsActive = 'True' AND SM.IsActive = 'True' LEFT OUTER JOIN
dbo.trainer ON dbo.trainer.TopicID = SM.subModuleID
as you can see, in error code, dbo.SubModule is already defined as SM, but I am using dbo.SubModule in next line, hence there was an error.
use declared name instead of actual name. Problem solved.
My best advise when having the error is to use [] braquets to sorround table names, the abbreviation of tables causes sometimes errors, (sometime table abbreviations just work fine...weird)
I was getting this error and just could not see where the problem was. I double checked all of my aliases and syntax and nothing looked out of place. The query was similar to ones I write all the time.
I decided to just re-write the query (I originally had copied it from a report .rdl file) below, over again, and it ran fine. Looking at the queries now, they look the same to me, but my re-written one works.
Just wanted to say that it might be worth a shot if nothing else works.
When you type the FROM table those errors will disappear.
Type FROM below what your typing then Intellisense will work and multi-part identifier will work.
I faced this problem and solved it but there is a difference between your and mine code. In spite of I think you can understand what is "the multi-part identifier could not be bound"
When I used this code
select * from tbTest where email = sakira#gmail.com
I faced Multi-part identifier problem
but when I use single quotation for email address It solved
select * from tbTest where email = 'sakira#gmail.com'
I had exactly the same issue, and similar to your coding I had missed out the FROM field, once it is added, the query knows what table to read the data from
Mine worked after removing square brackets in a SUBSTRING method. I changed from
SUBSTRING([dbo.table].[column],15,2)
to
SUBSTRING(dbo.table.column,15,2)
CTRL+SHIFT+R (refreshing the Intellisense) took care of it for me.

PostgreSQL: Using AND statement in LEFT JOIN is not working as expected

This query returns all the elements in the table la and all nulls for fields coming from the lar table which is not what I expected.
SELECT
la.listing_id,
la.id,
lar.*
FROM la
LEFT JOIN lar
ON lar.application_id = la.id AND la.listing_id = 2780;
This query returns correct and expected results but shouldn't both queries do the same thing ?
SELECT
la.listing_id,
la.id,
lar.*
FROM la
LEFT JOIN lar
ON lar.application_id = la.id
WHERE la.listing_id = 2780;
What am I missing here?
I want to make conditional joins as I have noticed that for complex queries Postgresql does the join then do the WHERE clause which is actually very slow. How to make the database filter out some records before doing the JOIN ?
The confusion around LEFT JOIN and WHERE clause has been clarified many times:
SQL / PostgreSQL left join ignores "on = constant" predicate, on left table
This interesting question remains:
How to make the database filter out some records before doing the JOIN?
There are no explicit query hints in Postgres. (Which is a matter of ongoing debate.) But there are still various tricks to make Postgres bend your way.
But first, ask yourself: Why did the query planner estimate the chosen plan to be cheaper to begin with? Is your server configuration basically sane? Cost settings adequate? autovacuum running? Postgres version outdated? Are you working around an underlying problem that should really be fixed?
If you force Postgres to do it your way, you should be sure it won't fire back, after a version upgrade or update to the server configuration ... You'd better know what you are doing exactly.
That said, you can force Postgres to "filter out some records before doing the JOIN" with a subquery where you add OFFSET 0 - which is just noise, logically, but prevents Postgres from rearranging it into the form of a regular join. (Query hint after all)
SELECT la.listing_id, la.id, lar.*
FROM (
SELECT listing_id, id
FROM la
WHERE listing_id = 2780
OFFSET 0
) la
LEFT JOIN lar ON lar.application_id = la.id;
Or you can use a CTE (less obscure, but more expensive). Or other tricks like setting certain config parameters. Or, in this particular case, I would use a LATERAL join to the same effect:
SELECT la.listing_id, la.id, lar.*
FROM la
LEFT JOIN LATERAL (
SELECT *
FROM lar
WHERE application_id = la.id
) lar ON true
WHERE la.listing_id = 2780;
Related:
Sample Query to show Cardinality estimation error in PostgreSQL
Here is an extensive blog on Query hints by 2ndQuadrant. Five year old but still valid.
The LEFT JOIN keyword returns all rows from the left table (table1), with the matching rows in the right table (table2). The result is NULL in the right side when there is no match.
So no matter you try to filter with AND la.listing_id = 2780; you still get all the rows from first table. But only those with la.listing_id = 2780; will have something <> NULL on the right side
The behaviour is different if you try INNER JOIN in that case only the matching columns are created and the AND condition will filter the rows.
So to make the first query work you need add WHERE la.listing_id IS NOT NULL
The problem with second query is will try to JOIN every row and then will filter only the one you need.

Relationships between stored procs?

I'll start by saying hello! This forum has been a great help to me over the past few months, but have only now joined and asking my first question.
I'm working with the Northwind database in SQL Server 2008 r2 to build a vb.net application. I've been wrecking my head for a week trying to figure out how to make an order/invoice form. I can get the information I need to display using separate stored procs (GetCustInfo, GetOrderInfo, GetProductInfo, or something like that), but I'm having trouble figuring out how to display them on the form.
When I select all the info I need in one sp (as in the Invoice view which comes built in the db), I get 2155 rows, which is the number of items which have been ordered in the company history.
What I want to do is display this information, but navigate by OrderID (which would give me 830 rows, each with a certain number of products related to the OrderID). So I'm thinking I need different stored procs related which can be related in some way.
I'd really appreciate any help that can be given on this.
Many thanks in advance.
p.s. I have screenshots of the Northwind sample app which shipped/ships with Access, which is really what I'm trying to recreate in SQL Server. Unfortunately, no code!
MM
Yes you can achieve it by many ways and SP is one. Just create a SP to select that related products passing OrderId as a input parameter.
Some options (with contrived examples):
You can ALTER existing stored procedures to get what you want (not recommended if you want to use the existing procedures for other queries).
ALTER PROCEDURE usp_ExistingProcedure
AS
BEGIN
SELECT t1.Value
, t2.Value
-- Supose that this was the addition we made to an existing stored procedure
, t2.ValueTwo
FROM TableOne t1
INNER JOIN TableTwo t2 ON t1.ID = t2.ID
END
You can CREATE new stored procedures for your queries; in the above example, it would be a create procedure with a new name.
You may be able to create a VIEW to obtain what you need - this will operate a little differently.
CREATE VIEW uv_ApplicationView
AS
SELECT t1.Value
, t2.Value
, t2.ValueTwo
FROM TableOne t1
INNER JOIN TableTwo t2 ON t1.ID = t2.ID
You can pull the query directly from the VB application, though if you want to reuse it for something else, I wouldn't recommend this approach.
// A re-usable approach calling a stored procedure
SqlCommand myQuery = new SqlCommand("EXECUTE usp_myQuery", sqlConn);
// A query directly in the C# code:
string msQuery = "SELECT t1.Value, t2.Value, t2.ValueTwo FROM TableOne t1 INNER JOIN TableTwo t2 ON t1.ID = t2.ID"
// Later ...
SqlCommand myQuery = new SqlCommand(msQuery, sqlConn);

Getting repetitive column names by adding a prefix to the repeated column name in SQL Server 2005

How can I write a stored procedure in SQL Server 2005 so that i can display the repeated column names by having a prefix added to it?
Example: If I have 'Others' as the column name belonging to a multiple categories mapped to another table having columns as 'MyColumn','YourColumn'. I need to join these two tables so that my output should be 'M_Others' and 'Y_Others'. I can use a case but I am not sure of any other repeated columns in the table. How to write that dynamically to know the repetitions ?
Thanks In Advance
You should use aliases in the projection of the query: (bogus example, showing the usage)
SELECT c.CustomerID AS Customers_CustomerID, o.CustomerID AS Orders_CustomerID
FROM Customers c INNER JOIN Orders o ON c.CustomerID = o.CustomerID
You can't dynamically change the column names without using dynamic SQL.
You have to explicitly alias them. There is no way to change "A_Others" or "B_Others" in this query:
SELECT
A.Others AS A_Others,
B.Others AS B_Others
FROM
TableA A
JOIN
TableB B ON A.KeyCol = B.KeyCol
If the repeated columns contain the same data (i.e. they are the join fields), you should not be sending both in the query anyway as this is a poor practice and is wasteful of both server and network resources. You should not use select * in queries on production especially if there are joins. If you are properly writing SQL code, you would alias as you go along when there are two columns with the same name that mean different things (for instance if you joined twice to the person table, once to get the doctor name and once to get the patient name). Doing this dynamically from system tables would not only be inefficient but could end up giving you a big security hole depending on how badly you wrote the code. You want to save five minutes or less in development by permanently affecting performance for every user and possibly negatively impacing data security. This is what database people refer to as a bad thing.
select n.id_pk,
(case when groupcount.n_count > 1 then substring(m.name, 1, 1) + '_' + n.name
else n.name end)
from test_table1 m
left join test_table2 n on m.id_pk = n.id_fk
left join (select name, count(name) as n_count
from test_table2 group by name)
groupcount on n.name = groupcount.name

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