In Microsoft Sql Server, there is a proc sys.sp_describe_first_result_set which takes an arbitrary sql query string and returns data describing the types that would be in the result set, were it to be executed. Note, this is describing the results of a complex query, not a table. MSDN reference
Is there anything similar for Postgres?
I tried to do this by creating a stored procedure to create temperory view then check information_schema.columns before droping the view.
There is at the protocol level - in the form of the Describe message in the extended query protocol.
I'm not aware of any SQL-level equivalent for arbitrary SQL strings. Good idea though; raise it on pgsql-general . I suspect it'd be pretty easy to implement.
In fact, a quick look at exec_describe_statement_message in src/backend/tcop/postgres.c shows that the brains are in SendRowDescriptionMessage in src/backend/access/common/printtup.c. It shouldn't be hard to write a simple C extension to do similar work and produce a resultset. Hopefully a couple of hours work if you're familar with the codebase; the idea would be:
Feed the SQL string into the parser/rewriter/planner to obtain a plan
Find the targetlist of the top level node, if any. This will be the RETURNING node for DML, or the top-level Query tlist for a SELECT.
Feed the tlist into ExecTypeFromTL
Loop over the tupledesc entries, skipping resjunk columns by looking them up in the tlist, and emit a row for each non-resjunk output from the query.
Related
I can get the table names with sp_depends but how to get the column names used in a procedure.
There is no way to get that information through supported SQL functionality. When you start looking into query processing diagnostics (e.g. dumping out internal query trees etc.) then this information could in principle be found. But this requires an understanding of the internal diagnostic info, which is very complex and not documented. You can certainly try to figure it out, and it may not be impossible, but you're on your own.
I have table like this below in my sybase database
ID,Col1,Col2
1,100,300
2,300, 400
3,400,500
4,900,1000.
I want result like this below only in sybase.
1,100,500 --- cross interrow checking the values
2,900,1000.
SInce you did not specify which database you're using, I'm assuming your using Sybase ASE (rather than Sybase IQ or Sybase SQL Anywhere, which do support lag/lead etc.)
Also it's not quite clear what you want since you have not defined how the relation between the various rows and columns should be interpreted. But I'm guessing you're essentially hinting at a dependency graph between Col2->Col1.
In ASE, you'll need to write this as a multi-step, loop-based algorithm whereby you determine the dependency graph. Since you don't know how many levels deep this will run, you need a loop rather than a self-join. You need to keep track of the result in a temporary table.
Can't go further here... but that's the sort of approach you'll need.
I'm working on a data conversion utility which can push data from one master database out to a number of different databases. The utility its self will have no knowledge of how data is kept in the destination (table structure), but I would like to provide writing a SQL statement to return data from the destination using a complex SQL query with multiple join statements. As long as the data is in a standardized format that the utility can recognize (field names) in an ADO query.
What I would like to do is then modify the live data in this ADO Query. However, since there are multiple join statements, I'm not sure if it's possible to do this. I know at least with BDE (I've never used BDE), it was very strict and you had to return all fields (*) and such. ADO I know is more flexible, but I don't know quite how flexible in this case.
Is it supposed to be possible to modify data in a TADOQuery in this manner, when the results include fields from different tables? And even if so, suppose I want to append a new record to the end (TADOQuery.Append). Would it append to two different tables?
The actual primary table I'm selecting from has a complimentary table which is joined by the same primary key field, one is a "Small" table (brief info) and the other is a "Detail" table (more info for each record in Small table). So, a typical statement would include something like this:
select ts.record_uid, ts.SomeField, td.SomeOtherField from table_small ts
join table_detail td on td.record_uid = ts.record_uid
There are also a number of other joins to records in other tables, but I'm not worried about appending to those ones. I'm only worried about appending to the "Small" and "Detail" tables - at the same time.
Is such a thing possible in an ADO Query? I'm willing to tweak and modify the SQL statement in any way necessary to make this possible. I have a bad feeling though that it's not possible.
Compatibility:
SQL Server 2000 through 2008 R2
Delphi XE2
Editing these Fields which have no influence on the joins is usually no problem.
Appending is ... you can limit the Append to one of the Tables by
procedure TForm.ADSBeforePost(DataSet: TDataSet);
begin
inherited;
TCustomADODataSet(DataSet).Properties['Unique Table'].Value := 'table_small';
end;
but without an Requery you won't get much further.
The better way will be setting Values by Procedure e.g. in BeforePost, Requery and Abort.
If your View would be persistent you would be able to use INSTEAD OF Triggers
Jerry,
I encountered the same problem on FireBird, and from experience I can tell you that it can be made(up to a small complexity) by using CachedUpdates . A very good resource is this one - http://podgoretsky.com/ftp/Docs/Delphi/D5/dg/11_cache.html. This article has the answers to all your questions.
I have abandoned the original idea of live ADO query updates, as it has become more complex than I can wrap my head around. The scope of the data push project has changed, and therefore this is no longer an issue for me, however still an interesting subject to know.
The new structure of the application consists of attaching multiple "Field Links" on various fields from the original set of data. Each of these links references the original field name and a SQL Statement which is to be executed when that field is being imported. Multiple field links can be on one single field, therefore can execute multiple statements, placing the value in various tables, etc. The end goal was an app which I can easily and repeatedly export a common dataset from an original source to any outside source with different data structures, without having to recompile the app.
However the concept of cached updates was not appealing to me, simply for the fact pointed out in the link in RBA's answer that data can be changed in the database in the mean-time. So I will instead integrate my own method of customizable data pushes.
First of all before I get into the question, I'll preface this with the fact that I know that this is a "bad" idea. But for business reasons it is something that I have to come up with a solution to, and I'm hoping that someone, somewhere might have some ideas on how to go about this.
I have a SQL Server 2008 R2 table that has a "OtherProperties" column. This column contains various other, somewhat arbitrary additional pieces of information that relate to the records. There is a business need to create a UDF that we can use to query the results, for example.
SELECT *
FROM MyTable
WHERE MyUDFGetValue(myTable.OtherProperties, "LinkedOrder[0]") IS NOT NULL
This would find a record where there was an array of LinkedOrder entries that contained a value at index 0
SELECT *
FROM MyTable
WHERE MyUDFGetValue(myTable.OtherProperties, "SubOrder.OrderId") = 25
This would find a property "orderId" and use its value in a comparison.
Anyone seen an implementation of this? I've seen implementations of functions. Like this JSONParser that take the values into a table which just will not get us what we need query wise. Complexity wise, I don't want to write a full fledged JSON parser, but I can if I need to.
Not sure if this will suit your needs but I read about a CLR JSON serializer/deserializer. You can find it here, http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/CLR/74160/
It's been a long time since you asked your question but there is now a solution you can use - JSON Select which provides various functions for different datatypes, for example the JsonInt() function. From one of your examples (assuming OrderId is an int, if not you could use a different function):
SELECT *
FROM MyTable
WHERE dbo.JsonInt(myTable.OtherProperties, 'SubOrder.OrderId') = 25
DISCLOSURE:
I am the author of JSON Select, and as such have an interest in you using it :)
If you cannot use SQL Server 2016 with built-in JSON support, you would need to use CLR e.g. JSONselect, json4sql, or custom code such as http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/1000953/JSON-for-SQL-Server-Part, etc.
So I'm not necessarily saying this is even a good idea if it were possible, since the schema of the view would be extremely volatile, but is there any way to represent a has-many relationship in a single view?
For example, let's say I have a customer that can have any number of addresses in the database. Is there any way to list out each column of each address with perhaps a number as a part of the alias (e.g., columns like Customer Id, Name, Address_Street_1, Address_Street_2, etc)?
Thanks!
Not really - you really are doing a dynamic pivot. It's possible to use OPENROWSET to get to a dynamically generated query, but whether that's advisable, it's hard to say without seeing more about the business case.
First make a stored proc which does the dynamic pivot like I did on the StackExchange Data Explorer.
Basically, you generate dynamic SQL which builds the column list. This can only really be done in a stored proc. Which is fine for applciation calls.
But what about if you want to re-use that in a lot of different joins or ad hoc queries?
Then, have a look at this article: "Using SQL Servers OPENROWSET to break the rules"
You can now call your stored proc by looping back into the server and then getting the results into a rowset - this can be in a view!
The late Ken Henderson has some good examples of this in his excellent book: "The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Stored Procedures, XML, and HTML" (you got to love the little "Covers .NET!" on the cover which captures well the zeitgeist for 2002!).
He only covers the loopback part (with views and user-defined functions), the less verbose PIVOT syntax was not available until 2005, but PIVOTs can also be generated using a CASE statement as a characteristic function.
Obviously, this technique has caveats (I can't even do this on our production server).
Yes - use:
CREATE VIEW customer_addresses AS
SELECT t.customer_id,
t.customer_name,
a1.street AS address_street_1,
a2.street AS address_street_2
FROM CUSTOMER t
LEFT JOIN ADDRESS a1 ON a1.customer_id = t.customer_id
LEFT JOIN ADDRESS a2 ON a2.customer_id = t.customer_id
If you provided more info, it'd be easier to give you a better answer. It's possible you're looking to pivot data (turn rows into columns).
Simply put, no. Not without dynamically recreating the view every time you want to use it at least, that is.
But, what you can do is predefine, say, 4 address columns in your view, then populate the first four results of your one-to-many relation into those columns. It's not quite the dynamic view you want, but it's also much more stable/usable in my opinion.