Stackoverflow supports table markdown. For example, to display a table like this:
N_NATIONKEY
N_NAME
N_REGIONKEY
0
ALGERIA
0
1
ARGENTINA
1
2
BRAZIL
1
3
CANADA
1
4
EGYPT
4
You can write code like this:
|N_NATIONKEY|N_NAME|N_REGIONKEY|
|---:|:---|---:|
|0|ALGERIA|0|
|1|ARGENTINA|1|
|2|BRAZIL|1|
|3|CANADA|1|
|4|EGYPT|4|
It would save a lot of time to generate the Stackoverflow table markdown automatically when running Snowflake queries.
The following stored procedure accepts either a query string or a query ID (it will auto-detect which it is) and returns the table results as Stackoverflow table markdown. It will automatically align numbers and dates to the right, strings, arrays, and objects to the left, and other types default to centered. It supports any query you can pass to it. It may be a good idea to use $$ to terminate the string passed into the procedure in case the SQL contains single quotes. You can create the procedure and test it using this script:
create or replace procedure MARKDOWN("queryOrQueryId" string)
returns string
language javascript
execute as caller
as
$$
const MAX_ROWS = 50; // Set the maximum row count to fetch. Tables in markdown larger than this become hard to read.
var [rs, i, c, row, props] = [null, 0, 0, 0, {}];
if (!queryOrQueryId || queryOrQueryId == 0){
queryOrQueryId = `select * from table(result_scan(last_query_id())) limit ${MAX_ROWS}`;
}
queryOrQueryId = queryOrQueryId.trim();
if (isUUID(queryOrQueryId)){
rs = snowflake.execute({sqlText:`select * from table(result_scan('${queryOrQueryId}')) limit ${MAX_ROWS}`});
} else {
rs = snowflake.execute({sqlText:`${queryOrQueryId}`});
}
props.columnCount = rs.getColumnCount();
for(i = 1; i <= props.columnCount; i++){
props["col" + i + "Name"] = rs.getColumnName(i);
props["col" + i + "Type"] = rs.getColumnType(i);
}
var table = getHeader(props);
while(rs.next()){
row = "|";
for(c = 1; c <= props.columnCount; c++){
row += escapeMarkup(rs.getColumnValueAsString(c)) + "|";
}
table += "\n" + row;
}
return table;
//------ End main function. Start of helper functions.
function escapeMarkup(s){
s = s.replace(/\\/g, "\\\\");
s = s.replaceAll('|', '\\|');
s = s.replace(/\s+/g, " ");
return s;
}
function getHeader(props){
s = "|";
for (var i = 1; i <= props.columnCount; i++){
s += props["col" + i + "Name"] + "|";
}
s += "\n";
for (var i = 1; i <= props.columnCount; i++){
switch(props["col" + i + "Type"]) {
case 'number':
s += '|---:';
break;
case 'string':
s += '|:---';
break;
case 'date':
s += '|---:';
break;
case 'json':
s += '|:---';
break;
default:
s += '|:---:';
}
}
return s + "|";
}
function isUUID(str){
const regexExp = /^[0-9a-fA-F]{8}\b-[0-9a-fA-F]{4}\b-[0-9a-fA-F]{4}\b-[0-9a-fA-F]{4}\b-[0-9a-fA-F]{12}$/gi;
return regexExp.test(str);
}
$$;
-- Usage type 1, a simple query:
call stackoverflow_table($$ select * from SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA.TPCH_SF1.NATION limit 5 $$);
-- Usage type 2, a query ID:
select * from SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA.TPCH_SF1.NATION limit 5;
set quid = (select last_query_id());
call stackoverflow_table($quid);
Edit: Based on Fieldy's helpful feedback, I modified the procedure code to allow passing null or 0 or a blank string '' as the parameter. This will use the last query ID and is a helpful shortcut. It also adds a constant to the code that will limit the returns to a set number of rows. This limit will be applied when using query IDs (or sending null, '', or 0, which uses the last query ID). The limit is not applied when the input parameter is the text of a query to run to avoid syntax errors if there's already a limit applied, etc.
Greg Pavlik's Javascript Stored Procedure solution made me wonder if this would be any easier with the new Python language support in Stored Procedures. This is currently a public-preview feature.
The Python Snowpark API supports returning a result as a Pandas dataframe, and Pandas supports returning a dataframe in Markdown format, via the tabulate package. Here's the stored procedure.
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE markdown_table(query_id VARCHAR)
RETURNS VARCHAR
LANGUAGE PYTHON
RUNTIME_VERSION = '3.8'
PACKAGES = ('snowflake-snowpark-python','pandas','tabulate', 'regex')
HANDLER = 'markdown_table'
EXECUTE AS CALLER
AS $$
import pandas as pd
import tabulate
import regex
def markdown_table(session, queryOrQueryId = None):
# Validate UUID
if(queryOrQueryId is None):
pandas_result = session.sql("""Select * from table(result_scan(last_query_id()))""").to_pandas()
elif(bool(regex.match("^[0-9a-f]{8}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{12}$", queryOrQueryId))):
pandas_result = session.sql(f"""select * from table(result_scan('{queryOrQueryId}'))""").to_pandas()
else:
pandas_result = session.sql(queryOrQueryId).to_pandas()
return pandas_result.to_markdown()
$$;
Which you can use as follows:
-- Usage type 1, use the result from the query ran immediately proceeding the Store-Procedure Call
select * from SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA.TPCH_SF1.NATION limit 5;
call markdown_table(NULL);
-- Usage type 2, pass in a query_id
select * from SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA.TPCH_SF1.NATION limit 5;
set quid = (select last_query_id());
select $quid;
call markdown_table($quid);
-- Usage type 3, provide a Query string to the Store-Procedure Call
call markdown_table('select * from SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA.TPCH_SF1.NATION limit 5');
The table can also be
N_NATIONKEY|N_NAME|N_REGIONKEY
--|--|--
0|ALGERIA|0
1|ARGENTINA|1
2|BRAZIL|1
3|CANADA|1
4|EGYPT|4
giving, so it can be a simpler solution
N_NATIONKEY
N_NAME
N_REGIONKEY
0
ALGERIA
0
1
ARGENTINA
1
2
BRAZIL
1
3
CANADA
1
4
EGYPT
4
I grab the result table and use notepad++ and replace tab \t with pipe space | and then insert by hand the header marker line. I sometime replace the empty null results with the text null to make the results make more sense. the form you use with the start/end pipes gets around the need for that.
DBeaver IDE supports "data export as markdown" and "advanced copy as markdown" out-of-the-box:
Output:
|R_REGIONKEY|R_NAME|R_COMMENT|
|-----------|------|---------|
|0|AFRICA|lar deposits. blithely final packages cajole. regular waters are final requests. regular accounts are according to |
|1|AMERICA|hs use ironic, even requests. s|
|2|ASIA|ges. thinly even pinto beans ca|
|3|EUROPE|ly final courts cajole furiously final excuse|
|4|MIDDLE EAST|uickly special accounts cajole carefully blithely close requests. carefully final asymptotes haggle furiousl|
It is rendered as:
R_REGIONKEY
R_NAME
R_COMMENT
0
AFRICA
lar deposits. blithely final packages cajole. regular waters are final requests. regular accounts are according to
1
AMERICA
hs use ironic, even requests. s
2
ASIA
ges. thinly even pinto beans ca
3
EUROPE
ly final courts cajole furiously final excuse
4
MIDDLE EAST
uickly special accounts cajole carefully blithely close requests. carefully final asymptotes haggle furiousl
Problem with UniqueIdentifiers
We have an existing database which uses uniqueidentifiers extensively (unfortunately!) both as primary keys and some nullable columns of some tables. We came across a situation where some reports that run on these tables sort on these uniqueidentifiers because there is no other column in the table that would give a meaningful sort (isn't that ironic!). The intent was to sort so that it shows the items in the order they were inserted but they were not inserted using NewSequentialId() - hence a waste of time.
Fact about the Sort Algorithm
Anyway, considering SQL Server sorts uniqueidentifiers based on byte groups starting from the ending 5th byte group (6 bytes) and moving towards the 1st byte group (4 bytes) reversing the order on the 3rd byte-group (2 bytes) from right-left to left-right,
My Question
I was curious to know if there is any real life situation that this kind of sort helps at all.
How does SQL Server store the uniqueidentifier internally which might provide insight on
why it has this whacky sort algorithm?
Reference:
Alberto Ferrari's discovery of the SQL Server GUID sort
Example
Uniqueidentifiers are sorted as shown below when you use a Order By on a uniqueidentifier column having the below data.
Please note that the below data is sorted ascendingly and highest sort preference is from the 5th byte group towards the 1st byte group (backwards).
-- 1st byte group of 4 bytes sorted in the reverse (left-to-right) order below --
01000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
10000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
00010000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
00100000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
00000100-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
00001000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
00000001-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
00000010-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
-- 2nd byte group of 2 bytes sorted in the reverse (left-to-right) order below --
00000000-0100-0000-0000-000000000000
00000000-1000-0000-0000-000000000000
00000000-0001-0000-0000-000000000000
00000000-0010-0000-0000-000000000000
-- 3rd byte group of 2 bytes sorted in the reverse (left-to-right) order below --
00000000-0000-0100-0000-000000000000
00000000-0000-1000-0000-000000000000
00000000-0000-0001-0000-000000000000
00000000-0000-0010-0000-000000000000
-- 4th byte group of 2 bytes sorted in the straight (right-to-left) order below --
00000000-0000-0000-0001-000000000000
00000000-0000-0000-0010-000000000000
00000000-0000-0000-0100-000000000000
00000000-0000-0000-1000-000000000000
-- 5th byte group of 6 bytes sorted in the straight (right-to-left) order below --
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000010
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000100
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000001000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000010000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000100000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000001000000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000010000000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000100000000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-001000000000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-010000000000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-100000000000
Code:
Alberto's code extended to denote that sorting is on the bytes and not on the individual bits.
With Test_UIDs As (-- 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
Select ID = 1, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-0000-0000-100000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 2, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-0000-0000-010000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 3, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-0000-0000-001000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 4, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-0000-0000-000100000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 5, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-0000-0000-000010000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 6, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-0000-0000-000001000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 7, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000100000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 8, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000010000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 9, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000001000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 10, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000100' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 11, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000010' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 12, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 13, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-0000-0001-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 14, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-0000-0010-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 15, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-0000-0100-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 16, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-0000-1000-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 17, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-0001-0000-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 18, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-0010-0000-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 19, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-0100-0000-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 20, UID = cast ('00000000-0000-1000-0000-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 21, UID = cast ('00000000-0001-0000-0000-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 22, UID = cast ('00000000-0010-0000-0000-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 23, UID = cast ('00000000-0100-0000-0000-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 24, UID = cast ('00000000-1000-0000-0000-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 25, UID = cast ('00000001-0000-0000-0000-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 26, UID = cast ('00000010-0000-0000-0000-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 27, UID = cast ('00000100-0000-0000-0000-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 28, UID = cast ('00001000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 29, UID = cast ('00010000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 30, UID = cast ('00100000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 31, UID = cast ('01000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
Union Select ID = 32, UID = cast ('10000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000' as uniqueidentifier)
)
Select * From Test_UIDs Order By UID, ID
The algorithm is documented by the SQL Server guys here: How are GUIDs compared in SQL Server 2005? I Quote here here (since it's an old article that may be gone forever in a few years)
In general, equality comparisons make a lot of sense with
uniqueidentifier values. However, if you find yourself needing general
ordering, then you might be looking at the wrong data type and should
consider various integer types instead.
If, after careful thought, you decide to order on a uniqueidentifier
column, you might be surprised by what you get back.
Given these two uniqueidentifier values:
#g1= '55666BEE-B3A0-4BF5-81A7-86FF976E763F' #g2 =
'8DD5BCA5-6ABE-4F73-B4B7-393AE6BBB849'
Many people think that #g1 is less than #g2, since '55666BEE' is
certainly smaller than '8DD5BCA5'. However, this is not how SQL Server
2005 compares uniqueidentifier values.
The comparison is made by looking at byte "groups" right-to-left, and
left-to-right within a byte "group". A byte group is what is delimited
by the '-' character. More technically, we look at bytes {10 to 15}
first, then {8-9}, then {6-7}, then {4-5}, and lastly {0 to 3}.
In this specific example, we would start by comparing '86FF976E763F'
with '393AE6BBB849'. Immediately we see that #g2 is indeed greater
than #g1.
Note that in .NET languages, Guid values have a different default sort
order than in SQL Server. If you find the need to order an array or
list of Guid using SQL Server comparison semantics, you can use an
array or list of SqlGuid instead, which implements IComparable in a
way which is consistent with SQL Server semantics.
Plus, the sort follows byte groups endianness (see here: Globally unique identifier). The groups 10-15 and 8-9 are stored as big endian (corresponding to the Data4 in the wikipedia article), so they are compared as big endian. Other groups are compared using little endian.
A special service for those that find that the accepted answer a bit vague. The code speaks for itself; the magical parts are:
System.Guid g
g.ToByteArray();
int[] m_byteOrder = new int[16] // 16 Bytes = 128 Bit
{10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 8, 9, 6, 7, 4, 5, 0, 1, 2, 3};
public int Compare(Guid x, Guid y)
{
byte byte1, byte2;
//Swap to the correct order to be compared
for (int i = 0; i < NUM_BYTES_IN_GUID; i++)
{
byte1 = x.ToByteArray()[m_byteOrder[i]];
byte2 = y.ToByteArray()[m_byteOrder[i]];
if (byte1 != byte2)
return (byte1 < byte2) ? (int)EComparison.LT : (int)EComparison.GT;
} // Next i
return (int)EComparison.EQ;
}
Full code:
namespace BlueMine.Data
{
public class SqlGuid
: System.IComparable
, System.IComparable<SqlGuid>
, System.Collections.Generic.IComparer<SqlGuid>
, System.IEquatable<SqlGuid>
{
private const int NUM_BYTES_IN_GUID = 16;
// Comparison orders.
private static readonly int[] m_byteOrder = new int[16] // 16 Bytes = 128 Bit
{10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 8, 9, 6, 7, 4, 5, 0, 1, 2, 3};
private byte[] m_bytes; // the SqlGuid is null if m_value is null
public SqlGuid(byte[] guidBytes)
{
if (guidBytes == null || guidBytes.Length != NUM_BYTES_IN_GUID)
throw new System.ArgumentException("Invalid array size");
m_bytes = new byte[NUM_BYTES_IN_GUID];
guidBytes.CopyTo(m_bytes, 0);
}
public SqlGuid(System.Guid g)
{
m_bytes = g.ToByteArray();
}
public byte[] ToByteArray()
{
byte[] ret = new byte[NUM_BYTES_IN_GUID];
m_bytes.CopyTo(ret, 0);
return ret;
}
int CompareTo(object obj)
{
if (obj == null)
return 1; // https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.icomparable.compareto(v=vs.110).aspx
System.Type t = obj.GetType();
if (object.ReferenceEquals(t, typeof(System.DBNull)))
return 1;
if (object.ReferenceEquals(t, typeof(SqlGuid)))
{
SqlGuid ui = (SqlGuid)obj;
return this.Compare(this, ui);
} // End if (object.ReferenceEquals(t, typeof(UInt128)))
return 1;
} // End Function CompareTo(object obj)
int System.IComparable.CompareTo(object obj)
{
return this.CompareTo(obj);
}
int CompareTo(SqlGuid other)
{
return this.Compare(this, other);
}
int System.IComparable<SqlGuid>.CompareTo(SqlGuid other)
{
return this.Compare(this, other);
}
enum EComparison : int
{
LT = -1, // itemA precedes itemB in the sort order.
EQ = 0, // itemA occurs in the same position as itemB in the sort order.
GT = 1 // itemA follows itemB in the sort order.
}
public int Compare(SqlGuid x, SqlGuid y)
{
byte byte1, byte2;
//Swap to the correct order to be compared
for (int i = 0; i < NUM_BYTES_IN_GUID; i++)
{
byte1 = x.m_bytes[m_byteOrder[i]];
byte2 = y.m_bytes[m_byteOrder[i]];
if (byte1 != byte2)
return (byte1 < byte2) ? (int)EComparison.LT : (int)EComparison.GT;
} // Next i
return (int)EComparison.EQ;
}
int System.Collections.Generic.IComparer<SqlGuid>.Compare(SqlGuid x, SqlGuid y)
{
return this.Compare(x, y);
}
public bool Equals(SqlGuid other)
{
return Compare(this, other) == 0;
}
bool System.IEquatable<SqlGuid>.Equals(SqlGuid other)
{
return this.Equals(other);
}
}
}
Here's a different approach. The GUID is simply shuffled around ready for a normal string comparison like it occurs in SQL Server. This is Javascript but it is very easy to convert to any language.
function guidForComparison(guid) {
/*
character positions:
11111111112222222222333333
012345678901234567890123456789012345
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
byte positions:
111111111111
00112233 4455 6677 8899 001122334455
*/
return guid.substr(24, 12) +
guid.substr(19, 4) +
guid.substr(16, 2) +
guid.substr(14, 2) +
guid.substr(11, 2) +
guid.substr(9, 2) +
guid.substr(6, 2) +
guid.substr(4, 2) +
guid.substr(2, 2) +
guid.substr(0, 2);
};
I have a Spinner View that's populated through a SimpleCursorAdapter.
Based on the selection I need to save the rowid in the entry database (position won't work because things can be added and deleted from the Spinner Database).
This I can do by using spinner.getAdapter().getItemId(pos);. But When I edit an entry I need to make the Spinner position selected that is associated with this rowid (currently).
spinner.setSelection(position); won't work because I have the rowid, I need a way to find the current position of the item in the current spinner based on the rowid in the database.
If you want to set the selection of a Spinner thats backed by a CursorAdapter, you can loop through all the items in the Cursor and look for the one you want (assuming that the primary key in your table is named "_id"):
Spinner spinner = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spinner);
spinner.setAdapter(new SimpleCursorAdapter(...));
for (int i = 0; i < spinner.getCount(); i++) {
Cursor value = (Cursor) spinner.getItemAtPosition(i);
long id = value.getLong(value.getColumnIndex("_id"));
if (id == rowid) {
spinner.setSelection(i);
}
}
If you want to get the rowid of a selected item, you can do something similar:
Cursor cursor = (Cursor) spinner.getSelectedItem();
long rowid = cursor.getLong(cursor.getColumnIndex("_id"));
There might be a quicker way to do it, but that's always worked for me.
Had an idea when writing this, made a hashtable with rowid->pos when populating the spinner and then used that. Might help someone if they're searching.
I agree with Erich Douglass's above answer but i found fastest loop syntax which will be useful while spinner.getCount() is greater than 50k to 100k.
/* 1 (fastest) */
for (int i = initializer; i >= 0; i--) { ... }
/* 2 */
int limit = calculateLoopLimit();
for (int i = 0; i < limit; i++) { ... }
/* 3 */
Type[] array = getMyArray();
for (Type obj : array) { ... }
/* 4 */
for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) { ... }
/* 5 */
for (int i = 0; i < this.var; i++) { ... }
/* 6 */
for (int i = 0; i < obj.size(); i++) { ... }
/* 7 (slowest) */
Iterable<Type> list = getMyList();
for (Type obj : list) { ... }
So i think we can use here second for better performance:
int spinnerCount = spinner.getCount();
for (int i = 0; i < spinnerCount; i++) {
Cursor value = (Cursor) spinner.getItemAtPosition(i);
long id = value.getLong(value.getColumnIndex("_id"));
if (id == rowid) {
spinner.setSelection(i);
}
}
I think that instead of a for loop is better a while, because when you find your item, can break the loop.
int spinnerCount = spinner.getCount();
int i = 0;
while(i++ < spinnerCount) {
Cursor value = (Cursor) spinner.getItemAtPosition(i);
long id = value.getLong(value.getColumnIndex("_id"));
if (id == rowid) {
spinner.setSelection(i);
break;
}
}
First step, create view for your data set, with joins etc.:
CREATE VIEW my_view AS
SELECT _id, field FROM my_table
Second step:
CREATE VIEW my_view2 AS
SELECT count(*) AS row_id, q1.*
FROM my_view AS q1
LEFT JOIN my_view AS q2
WHERE q1._id >= q2._id
GROUP BY q1._id
Then simply:
SELECT * FROM my_view2
Results:
row_id | _id | field
1 4 XbMCmUBFwb
2 6 Te JMejSaK
3 8 dDGMMiuRuh
4 10 phALAbnq c
5 11 EQQwPKksIj
6 12 PAt tbDnf
7 13 f zUSuhvM
8 14 TIMBgAGhkT
9 15 OOcnjKLLER
To get position by id:
SELECT * FROM my_view2 WHERE _id=11
Results:
row_id | _id | field
5 11 EQQwPKksIj
Hope that help
https://stackoverflow.com/a/5040748/1206052
dziobas
has provided an awesome answer.. But I am not surprised why nobody has recommended it.. just want to make some correction in his answer..
CREATE VIEW my_view2 AS
SELECT count(*) AS row_id, q1.*
FROM my_view AS q1
LEFT JOIN my_view AS q2
ON (q1._id >= q2._id)
GROUP BY q1._id
I just replaced "where" with "on" that is required by join..
now u have all the items with their Positions associated with there ID's..
Just assign the ROW_id to the setselection() of spinner
Why do it the hard way when you can do it the right way?
I refer to the manual:
http://d.android.com/reference/android/widget/AdapterView.OnItemSelectedListener.html#onItemSelected%28android.widget.AdapterView%3C?%3E,%20android.view.View,%20int,%20long%29
example code:
spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(new OnItemSelectedListener() {
public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id)
{
int index = spinner.getSelectedItemPosition();
Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(),
"You have selected item : " + index + " which is row " + id,
Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}
public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> arg0) {}
});
Thanks to evancharlton on #android-dev for this enlightment. :)
We have a large database on which we have DB side pagination. This is quick, returning a page of 50 rows from millions of records in a small fraction of a second.
Users can define their own sort, basically choosing what column to sort by. Columns are dynamic - some have numeric values, some dates and some text.
While most sort as expected text sorts in a dumb way. Well, I say dumb, it makes sense to computers, but frustrates users.
For instance, sorting by a string record id gives something like:
rec1
rec10
rec14
rec2
rec20
rec3
rec4
...and so on.
I want this to take account of the number, so:
rec1
rec2
rec3
rec4
rec10
rec14
rec20
I can't control the input (otherwise I'd just format in leading 000s) and I can't rely on a single format - some are things like "{alpha code}-{dept code}-{rec id}".
I know a few ways to do this in C#, but can't pull down all the records to sort them, as that would be to slow.
Does anyone know a way to quickly apply a natural sort in Sql server?
We're using:
ROW_NUMBER() over (order by {field name} asc)
And then we're paging by that.
We can add triggers, although we wouldn't. All their input is parametrised and the like, but I can't change the format - if they put in "rec2" and "rec10" they expect them to be returned just like that, and in natural order.
We have valid user input that follows different formats for different clients.
One might go rec1, rec2, rec3, ... rec100, rec101
While another might go: grp1rec1, grp1rec2, ... grp20rec300, grp20rec301
When I say we can't control the input I mean that we can't force users to change these standards - they have a value like grp1rec1 and I can't reformat it as grp01rec001, as that would be changing something used for lookups and linking to external systems.
These formats vary a lot, but are often mixtures of letters and numbers.
Sorting these in C# is easy - just break it up into { "grp", 20, "rec", 301 } and then compare sequence values in turn.
However there may be millions of records and the data is paged, I need the sort to be done on the SQL server.
SQL server sorts by value, not comparison - in C# I can split the values out to compare, but in SQL I need some logic that (very quickly) gets a single value that consistently sorts.
#moebius - your answer might work, but it does feel like an ugly compromise to add a sort-key for all these text values.
order by LEN(value), value
Not perfect, but works well in a lot of cases.
Most of the SQL-based solutions I have seen break when the data gets complex enough (e.g. more than one or two numbers in it). Initially I tried implementing a NaturalSort function in T-SQL that met my requirements (among other things, handles an arbitrary number of numbers within the string), but the performance was way too slow.
Ultimately, I wrote a scalar CLR function in C# to allow for a natural sort, and even with unoptimized code the performance calling it from SQL Server is blindingly fast. It has the following characteristics:
will sort the first 1,000 characters or so correctly (easily modified in code or made into a parameter)
properly sorts decimals, so 123.333 comes before 123.45
because of above, will likely NOT sort things like IP addresses correctly; if you wish different behaviour, modify the code
supports sorting a string with an arbitrary number of numbers within it
will correctly sort numbers up to 25 digits long (easily modified in code or made into a parameter)
The code is here:
using System;
using System.Data.SqlTypes;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Server;
public class UDF
{
[SqlFunction(DataAccess = DataAccessKind.None, IsDeterministic=true)]
public static SqlString Naturalize(string val)
{
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(val))
return val;
while(val.Contains(" "))
val = val.Replace(" ", " ");
const int maxLength = 1000;
const int padLength = 25;
bool inNumber = false;
bool isDecimal = false;
int numStart = 0;
int numLength = 0;
int length = val.Length < maxLength ? val.Length : maxLength;
//TODO: optimize this so that we exit for loop once sb.ToString() >= maxLength
var sb = new StringBuilder();
for (var i = 0; i < length; i++)
{
int charCode = (int)val[i];
if (charCode >= 48 && charCode <= 57)
{
if (!inNumber)
{
numStart = i;
numLength = 1;
inNumber = true;
continue;
}
numLength++;
continue;
}
if (inNumber)
{
sb.Append(PadNumber(val.Substring(numStart, numLength), isDecimal, padLength));
inNumber = false;
}
isDecimal = (charCode == 46);
sb.Append(val[i]);
}
if (inNumber)
sb.Append(PadNumber(val.Substring(numStart, numLength), isDecimal, padLength));
var ret = sb.ToString();
if (ret.Length > maxLength)
return ret.Substring(0, maxLength);
return ret;
}
static string PadNumber(string num, bool isDecimal, int padLength)
{
return isDecimal ? num.PadRight(padLength, '0') : num.PadLeft(padLength, '0');
}
}
To register this so that you can call it from SQL Server, run the following commands in Query Analyzer:
CREATE ASSEMBLY SqlServerClr FROM 'SqlServerClr.dll' --put the full path to DLL here
go
CREATE FUNCTION Naturalize(#val as nvarchar(max)) RETURNS nvarchar(1000)
EXTERNAL NAME SqlServerClr.UDF.Naturalize
go
Then, you can use it like so:
select *
from MyTable
order by dbo.Naturalize(MyTextField)
Note: If you get an error in SQL Server along the lines of Execution of user code in the .NET Framework is disabled. Enable "clr enabled" configuration option., follow the instructions here to enable it. Make sure you consider the security implications before doing so. If you are not the db admin, make sure you discuss this with your admin before making any changes to the server configuration.
Note2: This code does not properly support internationalization (e.g., assumes the decimal marker is ".", is not optimized for speed, etc. Suggestions on improving it are welcome!
Edit: Renamed the function to Naturalize instead of NaturalSort, since it does not do any actual sorting.
I know this is an old question but I just came across it and since it's not got an accepted answer.
I have always used ways similar to this:
SELECT [Column] FROM [Table]
ORDER BY RIGHT(REPLICATE('0', 1000) + LTRIM(RTRIM(CAST([Column] AS VARCHAR(MAX)))), 1000)
The only common times that this has issues is if your column won't cast to a VARCHAR(MAX), or if LEN([Column]) > 1000 (but you can change that 1000 to something else if you want), but you can use this rough idea for what you need.
Also this is much worse performance than normal ORDER BY [Column], but it does give you the result asked for in the OP.
Edit: Just to further clarify, this the above will not work if you have decimal values such as having 1, 1.15 and 1.5, (they will sort as {1, 1.5, 1.15}) as that is not what is asked for in the OP, but that can easily be done by:
SELECT [Column] FROM [Table]
ORDER BY REPLACE(RIGHT(REPLICATE('0', 1000) + LTRIM(RTRIM(CAST([Column] AS VARCHAR(MAX)))) + REPLICATE('0', 100 - CHARINDEX('.', REVERSE(LTRIM(RTRIM(CAST([Column] AS VARCHAR(MAX))))), 1)), 1000), '.', '0')
Result: {1, 1.15, 1.5}
And still all entirely within SQL. This will not sort IP addresses because you're now getting into very specific number combinations as opposed to simple text + number.
RedFilter's answer is great for reasonably sized datasets where indexing is not critical, however if you want an index, several tweaks are required.
First, mark the function as not doing any data access and being deterministic and precise:
[SqlFunction(DataAccess = DataAccessKind.None,
SystemDataAccess = SystemDataAccessKind.None,
IsDeterministic = true, IsPrecise = true)]
Next, MSSQL has a 900 byte limit on the index key size, so if the naturalized value is the only value in the index, it must be at most 450 characters long. If the index includes multiple columns, the return value must be even smaller. Two changes:
CREATE FUNCTION Naturalize(#str AS nvarchar(max)) RETURNS nvarchar(450)
EXTERNAL NAME ClrExtensions.Util.Naturalize
and in the C# code:
const int maxLength = 450;
Finally, you will need to add a computed column to your table, and it must be persisted (because MSSQL cannot prove that Naturalize is deterministic and precise), which means the naturalized value is actually stored in the table but is still maintained automatically:
ALTER TABLE YourTable ADD nameNaturalized AS dbo.Naturalize(name) PERSISTED
You can now create the index!
CREATE INDEX idx_YourTable_n ON YourTable (nameNaturalized)
I've also made a couple of changes to RedFilter's code: using chars for clarity, incorporating duplicate space removal into the main loop, exiting once the result is longer than the limit, setting maximum length without substring etc. Here's the result:
using System.Data.SqlTypes;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Server;
public static class Util
{
[SqlFunction(DataAccess = DataAccessKind.None, SystemDataAccess = SystemDataAccessKind.None, IsDeterministic = true, IsPrecise = true)]
public static SqlString Naturalize(string str)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(str))
return str;
const int maxLength = 450;
const int padLength = 15;
bool isDecimal = false;
bool wasSpace = false;
int numStart = 0;
int numLength = 0;
var sb = new StringBuilder();
for (var i = 0; i < str.Length; i++)
{
char c = str[i];
if (c >= '0' && c <= '9')
{
if (numLength == 0)
numStart = i;
numLength++;
}
else
{
if (numLength > 0)
{
sb.Append(pad(str.Substring(numStart, numLength), isDecimal, padLength));
numLength = 0;
}
if (c != ' ' || !wasSpace)
sb.Append(c);
isDecimal = c == '.';
if (sb.Length > maxLength)
break;
}
wasSpace = c == ' ';
}
if (numLength > 0)
sb.Append(pad(str.Substring(numStart, numLength), isDecimal, padLength));
if (sb.Length > maxLength)
sb.Length = maxLength;
return sb.ToString();
}
private static string pad(string num, bool isDecimal, int padLength)
{
return isDecimal ? num.PadRight(padLength, '0') : num.PadLeft(padLength, '0');
}
}
Here's a solution written for SQL 2000. It can probably be improved for newer SQL versions.
/**
* Returns a string formatted for natural sorting. This function is very useful when having to sort alpha-numeric strings.
*
* #author Alexandre Potvin Latreille (plalx)
* #param {nvarchar(4000)} string The formatted string.
* #param {int} numberLength The length each number should have (including padding). This should be the length of the longest number. Defaults to 10.
* #param {char(50)} sameOrderChars A list of characters that should have the same order. Ex: '.-/'. Defaults to empty string.
*
* #return {nvarchar(4000)} A string for natural sorting.
* Example of use:
*
* SELECT Name FROM TableA ORDER BY Name
* TableA (unordered) TableA (ordered)
* ------------ ------------
* ID Name ID Name
* 1. A1. 1. A1-1.
* 2. A1-1. 2. A1.
* 3. R1 --> 3. R1
* 4. R11 4. R11
* 5. R2 5. R2
*
*
* As we can see, humans would expect A1., A1-1., R1, R2, R11 but that's not how SQL is sorting it.
* We can use this function to fix this.
*
* SELECT Name FROM TableA ORDER BY dbo.udf_NaturalSortFormat(Name, default, '.-')
* TableA (unordered) TableA (ordered)
* ------------ ------------
* ID Name ID Name
* 1. A1. 1. A1.
* 2. A1-1. 2. A1-1.
* 3. R1 --> 3. R1
* 4. R11 4. R2
* 5. R2 5. R11
*/
ALTER FUNCTION [dbo].[udf_NaturalSortFormat](
#string nvarchar(4000),
#numberLength int = 10,
#sameOrderChars char(50) = ''
)
RETURNS varchar(4000)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #sortString varchar(4000),
#numStartIndex int,
#numEndIndex int,
#padLength int,
#totalPadLength int,
#i int,
#sameOrderCharsLen int;
SELECT
#totalPadLength = 0,
#string = RTRIM(LTRIM(#string)),
#sortString = #string,
#numStartIndex = PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', #string),
#numEndIndex = 0,
#i = 1,
#sameOrderCharsLen = LEN(#sameOrderChars);
-- Replace all char that have the same order by a space.
WHILE (#i <= #sameOrderCharsLen)
BEGIN
SET #sortString = REPLACE(#sortString, SUBSTRING(#sameOrderChars, #i, 1), ' ');
SET #i = #i + 1;
END
-- Pad numbers with zeros.
WHILE (#numStartIndex <> 0)
BEGIN
SET #numStartIndex = #numStartIndex + #numEndIndex;
SET #numEndIndex = #numStartIndex;
WHILE(PATINDEX('[0-9]', SUBSTRING(#string, #numEndIndex, 1)) = 1)
BEGIN
SET #numEndIndex = #numEndIndex + 1;
END
SET #numEndIndex = #numEndIndex - 1;
SET #padLength = #numberLength - (#numEndIndex + 1 - #numStartIndex);
IF #padLength < 0
BEGIN
SET #padLength = 0;
END
SET #sortString = STUFF(
#sortString,
#numStartIndex + #totalPadLength,
0,
REPLICATE('0', #padLength)
);
SET #totalPadLength = #totalPadLength + #padLength;
SET #numStartIndex = PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', RIGHT(#string, LEN(#string) - #numEndIndex));
END
RETURN #sortString;
END
I know this is a bit old at this point, but in my search for a better solution, I came across this question. I'm currently using a function to order by. It works fine for my purpose of sorting records which are named with mixed alpha numeric ('item 1', 'item 10', 'item 2', etc)
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fnMixSort]
(
#ColValue NVARCHAR(255)
)
RETURNS NVARCHAR(1000)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #p1 NVARCHAR(255),
#p2 NVARCHAR(255),
#p3 NVARCHAR(255),
#p4 NVARCHAR(255),
#Index TINYINT
IF #ColValue LIKE '[a-z]%'
SELECT #Index = PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', #ColValue),
#p1 = LEFT(CASE WHEN #Index = 0 THEN #ColValue ELSE LEFT(#ColValue, #Index - 1) END + REPLICATE(' ', 255), 255),
#ColValue = CASE WHEN #Index = 0 THEN '' ELSE SUBSTRING(#ColValue, #Index, 255) END
ELSE
SELECT #p1 = REPLICATE(' ', 255)
SELECT #Index = PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%', #ColValue)
IF #Index = 0
SELECT #p2 = RIGHT(REPLICATE(' ', 255) + #ColValue, 255),
#ColValue = ''
ELSE
SELECT #p2 = RIGHT(REPLICATE(' ', 255) + LEFT(#ColValue, #Index - 1), 255),
#ColValue = SUBSTRING(#ColValue, #Index, 255)
SELECT #Index = PATINDEX('%[0-9,a-z]%', #ColValue)
IF #Index = 0
SELECT #p3 = REPLICATE(' ', 255)
ELSE
SELECT #p3 = LEFT(REPLICATE(' ', 255) + LEFT(#ColValue, #Index - 1), 255),
#ColValue = SUBSTRING(#ColValue, #Index, 255)
IF PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%', #ColValue) = 0
SELECT #p4 = RIGHT(REPLICATE(' ', 255) + #ColValue, 255)
ELSE
SELECT #p4 = LEFT(#ColValue + REPLICATE(' ', 255), 255)
RETURN #p1 + #p2 + #p3 + #p4
END
Then call
select item_name from my_table order by fnMixSort(item_name)
It easily triples the processing time for a simple data read, so it may not be the perfect solution.
Here is an other solution that I like:
http://www.dreamchain.com/sql-and-alpha-numeric-sort-order/
It's not Microsoft SQL, but since I ended up here when I was searching for a solution for Postgres, I thought adding this here would help others.
EDIT: Here is the code, in case the link goes away.
CREATE or REPLACE FUNCTION pad_numbers(text) RETURNS text AS $$
SELECT regexp_replace(regexp_replace(regexp_replace(regexp_replace(($1 collate "C"),
E'(^|\\D)(\\d{1,3}($|\\D))', E'\\1000\\2', 'g'),
E'(^|\\D)(\\d{4,6}($|\\D))', E'\\1000\\2', 'g'),
E'(^|\\D)(\\d{7}($|\\D))', E'\\100\\2', 'g'),
E'(^|\\D)(\\d{8}($|\\D))', E'\\10\\2', 'g');
$$ LANGUAGE SQL;
"C" is the default collation in postgresql; you may specify any collation you desire, or remove the collation statement if you can be certain your table columns will never have a nondeterministic collation assigned.
usage:
SELECT * FROM wtf w
WHERE TRUE
ORDER BY pad_numbers(w.my_alphanumeric_field)
For the following varchar data:
BR1
BR2
External Location
IR1
IR2
IR3
IR4
IR5
IR6
IR7
IR8
IR9
IR10
IR11
IR12
IR13
IR14
IR16
IR17
IR15
VCR
This worked best for me:
ORDER BY substring(fieldName, 1, 1), LEN(fieldName)
If you're having trouble loading the data from the DB to sort in C#, then I'm sure you'll be disappointed with any approach at doing it programmatically in the DB. When the server is going to sort, it's got to calculate the "perceived" order just as you would have -- every time.
I'd suggest that you add an additional column to store the preprocessed sortable string, using some C# method, when the data is first inserted. You might try to convert the numerics into fixed-width ranges, for example, so "xyz1" would turn into "xyz00000001". Then you could use normal SQL Server sorting.
At the risk of tooting my own horn, I wrote a CodeProject article implementing the problem as posed in the CodingHorror article. Feel free to steal from my code.
Simply you sort by
ORDER BY
cast (substring(name,(PATINDEX('%[0-9]%',name)),len(name))as int)
##
I've just read a article somewhere about such a topic. The key point is: you only need the integer value to sort data, while the 'rec' string belongs to the UI. You could split the information in two fields, say alpha and num, sort by alpha and num (separately) and then showing a string composed by alpha + num. You could use a computed column to compose the string, or a view.
Hope it helps
You can use the following code to resolve the problem:
Select *,
substring(Cote,1,len(Cote) - Len(RIGHT(Cote, LEN(Cote) - PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', Cote)+1)))alpha,
CAST(RIGHT(Cote, LEN(Cote) - PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', Cote)+1) AS INT)intv
FROM Documents
left outer join Sites ON Sites.IDSite = Documents.IDSite
Order BY alpha, intv
regards,
rabihkahaleh#hotmail.com
I'm fashionably late to the party as usual. Nevertheless, here is my attempt at an answer that seems to work well (I would say that). It assumes text with digits at the end, like in the original example data.
First a function that won't end up winning a "pretty SQL" competition anytime soon.
CREATE FUNCTION udfAlphaNumericSortHelper (
#string varchar(max)
)
RETURNS #results TABLE (
txt varchar(max),
num float
)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #txt varchar(max) = #string
DECLARE #numStr varchar(max) = ''
DECLARE #num float = 0
DECLARE #lastChar varchar(1) = ''
set #lastChar = RIGHT(#txt, 1)
WHILE #lastChar <> '' and #lastChar is not null
BEGIN
IF ISNUMERIC(#lastChar) = 1
BEGIN
set #numStr = #lastChar + #numStr
set #txt = Substring(#txt, 0, len(#txt))
set #lastChar = RIGHT(#txt, 1)
END
ELSE
BEGIN
set #lastChar = null
END
END
SET #num = CAST(#numStr as float)
INSERT INTO #results select #txt, #num
RETURN;
END
Then call it like below:
declare #str nvarchar(250) = 'sox,fox,jen1,Jen0,jen15,jen02,jen0004,fox00,rec1,rec10,jen3,rec14,rec2,rec20,rec3,rec4,zip1,zip1.32,zip1.33,zip1.3,TT0001,TT01,TT002'
SELECT tbl.value --, sorter.txt, sorter.num
FROM STRING_SPLIT(#str, ',') as tbl
CROSS APPLY dbo.udfAlphaNumericSortHelper(value) as sorter
ORDER BY sorter.txt, sorter.num, len(tbl.value)
With results:
fox
fox00
Jen0
jen1
jen02
jen3
jen0004
jen15
rec1
rec2
rec3
rec4
rec10
rec14
rec20
sox
TT01
TT0001
TT002
zip1
zip1.3
zip1.32
zip1.33
I still don't understand (probably because of my poor English).
You could try:
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY dbo.human_sort(field_name) ASC)
But it won't work for millions of records.
That why I suggested to use trigger which fills separate column with human value.
Moreover:
built-in T-SQL functions are really
slow and Microsoft suggest to use
.NET functions instead.
human value is constant so there is no point calculating it each time
when query runs.