SQL Server does not support the equivalent of ORACLE's %TYPE and %ROWTYPE - sql-server

Question

I writing a cursor to select data from a table into variables.
Using oracle I could simply use a single declare statement that in effect creates a variable for every column with a data type that matches the type of the underlying table (as it is currently defined at runtime)..
In SQL server it would seem you have to manually declare a variable for every column.
Am I right. Does anyone have any thoughts?
I think this is a massive reason to dislike SQL Server when compared to oracle.
I am so disappointed that SS doesn't have %TYPE and %ROWTYPE. These save hours of work when initially writing code and in the event that the type of a column needs to change, it saves having to go back and re-work all the code.
In Oracle I used to write something like:
DECLARE #MyRowVar AS ATable%ROWTYPE;
In SQL Server, I just had to write this this:
DECLARE #External_ID AS BIGINT = NULL;
DECLARE #PlatformID AS INT = NULL;
DECLARE #ActorIDOfReseller AS INT = NULL;
DECLARE #ActorIDOfClient AS INT = NULL;
DECLARE #ActorIDOfExtension AS INT = NULL;
DECLARE #CallType AS NCHAR (10) = NULL;
DECLARE #CallInitiatedDate AS DATE = NULL;
DECLARE #CallInitiatedTimeHH24MI AS TIME (0) = NULL;
DECLARE #TimePeriodID AS INT = NULL;
DECLARE #CallAnswered AS DATETIME = NULL;
DECLARE #CallAnsweredYN AS BIT = NULL;
DECLARE #CallDispositionID AS INT = NULL;
DECLARE #CountryID AS INT = NULL;
DECLARE #CallPrefixID AS INT = NULL;
DECLARE #FromNumber AS VARCHAR (32) = NULL;
DECLARE #ToNumber AS VARCHAR (80) = NULL;
DECLARE #CallDuration AS INT = NULL;
DECLARE #CallCostToExtension AS DECIMAL (10, 6) = NULL;
DECLARE #CallCostToClient AS DECIMAL (10, 6) = NULL;
DECLARE #CallCostToReseller AS DECIMAL (10, 6) = NULL;
DECLARE #CallCostToAdmin AS DECIMAL (10, 6) = NULL;
DECLARE #Flow AS VARCHAR (3) = NULL;
DECLARE #CallStart AS DATETIME = NULL;
DECLARE #MoneyUnit AS VARCHAR (32) = NULL;
DECLARE #Prefix AS VARCHAR (32) = NULL;
DECLARE #External_CallID AS VARCHAR (255) = NULL;
This is making me very sad and is a waste of my life.
I tagged this as Oracle, as I'm sure oracle developers will want to know how lucky they are to work with this professional tool.
Harvey
Continued.
From the comment below it appears there is an easier way! Thanks very much for the input. I was ranting as I got a bit knarked....sorry.
Here's some more context:
I have a csv file, with unreliable data in each column.
I BULK LOAD this csv file into tableA which has all columns declared as VARCHAR(100). (The file loads even if the data type of values aren't what was expected in the column)
I used a single statement to transfer the data from tableA into tableB.
TableB has the same columns as tableA, but tableB columns have a variety of datatypes - which are the expected datatypes that the csv data should have.
(TableB also has a few other columns not populated form the file, eg an IDENTITY column, etc..).
The statement is something like:
INSERT INTO tableB
(column list)
SELECT
( {column list for select} )
FROM tableB;
Each column in the {column list for select} above, has is wrapped with the TRY_CAST function to convert it to the same data type as the destination table or NULL.
The above step 3 worked OK, but I had no way of identifying the invalid rows.
So I decided to try to use a cursor and use the same select statement as in step 3 but without the TRY_CAST wrapping each column. I used a TRY/CATCH around the whole INSERT statement that operated on each row of the select statement to log the invalid rows when the INSERT failed.
I've now written Step 4 but boy I wish I'd posted a "how do I do this" question here first. My code looks really rubbish and I've posted it below.
As you can probably tell, I've not been using SQL Server long and I'm pretty rusty at using big databases..
Any more input you can give is very welcome. I'll re-write this tomorrow!
I like Jermey's suggestion of creating a temp table using teh SQL below, but I've not completely got my head around this yet!
Select *
INTO #tmp
From mytable
Where 1 = 0;
Any way, here it is.
(I've run this now and it took 30 seconds to process 254,000 rows, - only one of which was a failure - but this time is acceptable.)
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[Call_Process_FromXoomTalk_UsingCursor]
#PlatformId int
, #StartOfMonthDate as Date = NULL
, #EndOfMonthDate as Date = NULL
, #LimitImportToRowsWithThisCallType nVarchar(max) = NULL
, #LimitImportToRowsWithThisFlow nVarchar(max) = NULL
, #Raise1Print2Both3 as tinyint = 3
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #msg as nVarchar(max);
DECLARE #RowCount as int = 0;
DECLARE #FETCHSTATUS as int = 0;
DECLARE #CountOfRowFailures AS INT = 0;
DECLARE #CountOfRowSuccesses AS INT = 0;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- The order any type of the variables declared below
-- MUST match the order of the columns of the CURSOR SELECT statement below and
-- the data type of the underlying columns of the table "Call".
--
-- CALL TABLE COLUMNS:
--
DECLARE #External_ID AS BIGINT = NULL;
DECLARE #PlatformID2 AS INT = NULL;
DECLARE #ActorIDOfReseller AS INT = NULL;
DECLARE #ActorIDOfClient AS INT = NULL;
DECLARE #ActorIDOfExtension AS INT = NULL;
DECLARE #CallType AS NCHAR (10) = NULL;
DECLARE #CallInitiatedDate AS DATE = NULL;
DECLARE #CallInitiatedTimeHH24MI AS TIME (0) = NULL;
DECLARE #TimePeriodID AS INT = NULL;
DECLARE #CallAnswered AS DATETIME = NULL;
DECLARE #CallAnsweredYN AS BIT = NULL;
DECLARE #CallDispositionID AS INT = NULL;
DECLARE #CountryID AS INT = NULL;
DECLARE #CallPrefixID AS INT = NULL;
DECLARE #FromNumber AS VARCHAR (32) = NULL;
DECLARE #ToNumber AS VARCHAR (80) = NULL;
DECLARE #CallDuration AS INT = NULL;
DECLARE #CallCostToExtension AS DECIMAL (10, 6) = NULL;
DECLARE #CallCostToClient AS DECIMAL (10, 6) = NULL;
DECLARE #CallCostToReseller AS DECIMAL (10, 6) = NULL;
DECLARE #CallCostToAdmin AS DECIMAL (10, 6) = NULL;
DECLARE #Flow AS VARCHAR (3) = NULL;
DECLARE #CallStart AS DATETIME = NULL;
DECLARE #MoneyUnit AS VARCHAR (32) = NULL;
DECLARE #Prefix AS VARCHAR (32) = NULL;
DECLARE #External_CallID AS VARCHAR (255) = NULL;
-- END OF CALL TABLE COLUMNS:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- SETTINGS
SET NOCOUNT ON;
BEGIN TRY
BEGIN TRANSACTION
PRINT ' ';
PRINT '===================================================================================';
EXEC [PrintSystemTime] 'Starting: [Call_Process_FromXoomTalk_UsingCursor]';
PRINT '===================================================================================';
--
-- It is assumed that the file loaded into the CallData table
-- only contains calls made in the year and month provided to this procedure
--
--
-- Move rows from the staging table [CallDATA] into the main table
-- [Call]. Some simple looks and modifications are made
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-- Define the cursor
-- WARNING - For simplicity keep column order in step with the
-- variable declarations, select and insert use!
--
DECLARE curNewData CURSOR FAST_FORWARD
FOR
SELECT Table1.*
FROM
( SELECT
-- ID is identity field
[id] AS [ExternalID]
, #PlatformId AS [PlatformID]
, ( SELECT SubQry.[ID]
FROM [dbo].[Actor] AS SubQry
WHERE SubQry.[ExternalID] = [NewData].client_reseller_id
) AS Actor_ResellerID
, ( SELECT SubQry.[ID]
FROM [dbo].[Actor] AS SubQry
WHERE SubQry.[ExternalID] = NewData.client_client_id
) AS Actor_ClientID
, ( SELECT SubQry.[ID]
FROM [dbo].[Actor] AS SubQry
WHERE SubQry.[ExternalID] = NewData.client_extension_id
) AS Actor_ExtensionID
-- This code prevent invalid values being loaded
-- that would be rejected byt eh foreigh key
, CASE [calltype]
WHEN 'out' THEN 'out'
WHEN 'in' THEN 'in'
WHEN 'local' THEN 'local'
WHEN 'elocal' THEN 'elocal'
ELSE NULL
END AS [calltype]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Initiated date/time is split to produce derrived columns
--
-- , [initiated] as [initiated] -- Useful for testing
-- NOTE that CAST will convert 0000-00-00 00:00:00 to be NULL
, TRY_CAST([initiated] AS DATE) AS [CallInitiatedDate]
, TRY_CAST([initiated] AS TIME(0)) AS [CallInitiatedTimeHH24MI]
, ( SELECT isnull(GroupWithTHISID,[ID]) as ID
FROM [dbo].[DimTimePeriod] AS SubQry
WHERE SubQry.[ActorID] = NewData.[client_client_id]
AND TRY_CAST([initiated] AS TIME(0)) >= SubQry.[StartTimeHH24MI]
AND TRY_CAST([initiated] AS TIME(0)) < SubQry.[EndTimeHH24MI]
) AS [TimePeriodID]
-- What format are their dates! Do they have nano secs
, TRY_CAST([answer] as datetime2) AS [CallAnswered]
, iif([answer] is null,0,1) AS [CallAnsweredYN]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
, ( SELECT X.[ID]
FROM [dbo].[DimCallDisposition] AS X
WHERE X.[Disposition] = NewData.[disposion]
) AS [CallDispositionID]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Population of Country and Area require significant processing that is done later
--
, NULL AS [CountryID]
, NULL AS [AreaID]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Useful for testing
-- , [extension_number] AS [FromClientAndNumber]
, RIGHT([extension_number],LEN([extension_number])-CHARINDEX('*',[extension_number],1)) AS [FromNumber]
, CASE LEFT([partyid],2)
WHEN '00' THEN
-- Replace 00 with a + ie for all international numbers
'+' + SUBSTRING([partyid],3,9999)
ELSE [partyid]
END AS [ToNumber]
, [duration] AS [CallDuration_SECS]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- COST columns
--
-- NOTE: Some data in the cost fields in the file from the xoomtalk platform
-- was in scientific notation format
-- eg 4.2e-05 4.2e-05 7.2e-05 6.2e-05 8.3e-05 8.3e-05
-- Note that these were all very small values!
, CASE
WHEN [costext] like '%E-%' THEN LTRIM(RTRIM(TRY_CAST(TRY_CAST([costext] AS FLOAT) AS DECIMAL(10,6))))
WHEN [costext] like '%E+%' THEN NULL
ELSE TRY_CAST([costext] AS DECIMAL(10,6))
END AS [CallCostToExtension]
, CASE
WHEN NewData.[costcl] like '%E-%' THEN LTRIM(RTRIM(TRY_CAST(TRY_CAST([costcl] AS FLOAT) AS DECIMAL(10,6))))
WHEN [costcl] like '%E+%' THEN NULL
ELSE TRY_CAST([costcl] AS DECIMAL(10,6))
END AS [CallCostToClient]
, CASE
WHEN NewData.[costres] like '%E-%' THEN LTRIM(RTRIM(TRY_CAST(TRY_CAST([costres] AS FLOAT) AS DECIMAL(10,6))))
WHEN [costres] like '%E+%' THEN NULL
ELSE TRY_CAST([costres] AS DECIMAL(10,6))
END AS [CallCostToReseller]
, CASE
WHEN NewData.[costadmin] like '%E-%' THEN LTRIM(RTRIM(TRY_CAST(TRY_CAST([costadmin] AS FLOAT) AS DECIMAL(10,6))))
WHEN [costadmin] like '%E+%' THEN NULL
ELSE TRY_CAST([costadmin] AS DECIMAL(10,6))
END AS [CallCostToAdmin]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
, [flow] AS Flow
, [start] AS [CallStart]
, [moneyunit] AS [moneyunit]
, [prefix] AS [prefix]
, [callid] AS [External_CallID]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FROM [dbo].[CallDATA] AS NewData
WHERE ( (#LimitImportToRowsWithThisCallType IS NULL)
OR NewData.[calltype] = #LimitImportToRowsWithThisCallType
)
AND ( (#LimitImportToRowsWithThisFlow IS NULL)
OR NewData.[flow] = #LimitImportToRowsWithThisFlow
)
AND TRY_CAST([initiated] as datetime2) >= #StartOfMonthDate
AND TRY_CAST([initiated] as datetime2) <= #EndOfMonthDate
) as Table1
ORDER BY [calltype]
, [flow]
, [CallInitiatedDate]
, [CallInitiatedTimeHH24MI]
, [CallDuration_SECS]
;
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-- Open and use the cursor
--
PRINT '------------------------------------------------------------------';
PRINT 'ABOUT TO LIST the external_ID of any ROWS that failed to insert';
OPEN curNewData;
SET #FETCHSTATUS = 0;
SET #CountOfRowFailures = 0;
SET #CountOfRowSuccesses = 0;
WHILE #FETCHSTATUS = 0
BEGIN
FETCH NEXT FROM curNewData
INTO
#External_ID
, #PlatformID2
, #ActorIDOfReseller
, #ActorIDOfClient
, #ActorIDOfExtension
, #CallType
, #CallInitiatedDate
, #CallInitiatedTimeHH24MI
, #TimePeriodID
, #CallAnswered
, #CallAnsweredYN
, #CallDispositionID
, #CountryID
, #CallPrefixID
, #FromNumber
, #ToNumber
, #CallDuration
, #CallCostToExtension
, #CallCostToClient
, #CallCostToReseller
, #CallCostToAdmin
, #Flow
, #CallStart
, #MoneyUnit
, #Prefix
, #External_CallID
;
BEGIN TRY
INSERT INTO dbo.Call
(
[External_ID]
, [PlatformID]
, [ActorID-OfReseller]
, [ActorID-OfClient]
, [ActorID-OfExtension]
, [CallType]
, [CallInitiatedDate]
, [CallInitiatedTimeHH24MI]
, [TimePeriodID]
, [CallAnswered]
, [CallAnsweredYN]
, [CallDispositionID]
, [CountryID]
, CallPrefixID
, [FromNumber]
, [ToNumber]
, [CallDuration]
, [CallCostToExtension]
, [CallCostToClient]
, [CallCostToReseller]
, [CallCostToAdmin]
, [Flow]
, [CallStart]
, [MoneyUnit]
, [Prefix]
, [External_CallID]
)
VALUES
( #External_ID
, #PlatformID2
, #ActorIDOfReseller
, #ActorIDOfClient
, #ActorIDOfExtension
, #CallType
, #CallInitiatedDate
, #CallInitiatedTimeHH24MI
, #TimePeriodID
, #CallAnswered
, #CallAnsweredYN
, #CallDispositionID
, #CountryID
, #CallPrefixID
, #FromNumber
, #ToNumber
, #CallDuration
, #CallCostToExtension
, #CallCostToClient
, #CallCostToReseller
, #CallCostToAdmin
, #Flow
, #CallStart
, #MoneyUnit
, #Prefix
, #External_CallID
)
;
SET #CountOfRowSuccesses = #CountOfRowSuccesses + 1;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
-- Ignore error
PRINT CONCAT(#External_ID, '|', ERROR_NUMBER(), '|', ERROR_MESSAGE());
SET #CountOfRowFailures = #CountOfRowFailures + 1;
END CATCH;
SET #FETCHSTATUS = ##FETCH_STATUS;
END;
CLOSE curNewData;
DEALLOCATE curNewData;
PRINT '------------------------------------------------------------------';
PRINT CONCAT('Count Of Row Failures =', #CountOfRowFailures)
PRINT CONCAT('Count Of Row Successes=', #CountOfRowSuccesses)
PRINT '------------------------------------------------------------------';
COMMIT;
PRINT '################################ ';
PRINT 'COMMIT DONE';
PRINT '################################ ';
EXEC [PrintSystemTime] 'Ending: [Call_Process_FromXoomTalk_UsingCursor]';
PRINT '=========================================================================';
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
IF #Raise1Print2Both3 = 2 OR #Raise1Print2Both3 = 3
EXEC [dbo].[ErrPrintErrorDetails]
#CalledFromProcedure= '[dbo].[Call_Process_FromXoomTalk_UsingCursor]'
, #ExplainitoryErrorTextForUser = NULL
, #AddDottedLine = 1;
EXEC [PrintSystemTime] 'Ending with Error: [Call_Process_FromXoomTalk_UsingCursor]' ;
PRINT '=========================================================================';
ROLLBACK;
PRINT '################################ ';
PRINT 'ROLLBACK DONE';
PRINT '################################ ';
IF #Raise1Print2Both3 = 1 OR #Raise1Print2Both3 = 3
THROW;
END CATCH;
END

Answer 1

Unfortunately sometimes you have to change your tactics when you move from Oracle to SQL Server.
Back to your case, if you are processing a large data set and you want to catch the bad rows, try give your raw imported table an unique id column, start from the smallest id, copy limited rows to the new table (use cast, not try_cast) each time. When you see an error, the insert will fail and you can reduce the number of insert rows until you reach the bad row. Move it to a "bad row" and continue try other data. After all rows copied, you have one table for the good rows and one for the bad rows. Then deal with the bad ones.
It may not be the fast solution but you don't have to spend too many times perfecting your script and basically it's a one-pass solution.
Here is the concept :
Alter table imported_table add lid int identity(1,1) not null primary key;
select top 1 into bad_rows from imported_table ;
truncate table bad_rows;
Then run this code:
declare #last_id int, #r int,#c int;
select #last_id= 0; #r = 100;
while #last_id >=0 begin
begin try
insert into new_table (.....)
select top(#r) .... from imported_table where lid>#last_id order by lid;
select #c=##rowcount;
if #c<1 select #last_id=-1 --- end of loop
else select #last_id=#last_id + #c;
select #r = 100;
end try
begin catch
if #r <2 begin
insert into bad_rows(...)
select top(#r)... from imported_table
where lid>#last_id order by lid;
select #lid=#lid+1;
end
else select #r=#r / 2;
end catch;
end;

Answer 2

Others have stated that using temp tables is a possibility.
If you want to easily create a temp table with the same data types as your source, you can use Select INTO syntax such as
Select *
INTO #tmp
From mytable
Where 1 = 0
You can use this with only select columns, joins, etc to create a temporary working space without having to declare variables and data types