SELECT problem...

[Ian T]

Hi,

I've got what I think (probably incorrectly) should be a simple SELECT :

Two colums with data like

col1 col2
1 50
1 51
2 50
2 51
3 50
3 54

I'm trying to bring back items in col1 that have values of both 50 and 51
( and potentially more numbers) in col 2

What we've got so far is:

SELECT contactid
FROM tblContactTypeToContact cttc
WHERE cttc.contactTypeID = 50
AND cttc.contactID IN (
SELECT contactID
FROM tblContactTypeToContact
WHERE contactTypeID IN (51)
)

Which I don't think is quite right :-)

Any help appreciated!

Cheers,

Ian

create table stuff below.
if exists (select * from dbo.sysobjects where id =
object_id(N'[dbo].[tblContactTypeToContact]') and OBJECTPROPERTY(id,
N'IsUserTable') = 1)
drop table [dbo].[tblContactTypeToContact]
GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[tblContactTypeToContact] (
[contactID] [int] NOT NULL ,
[contactTypeID] [int] NOT NULL
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO

ALTER TABLE [dbo].[tblContactTypeToContact] WITH NOCHECK ADD
CONSTRAINT [PK_tblContactTypeToContact] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED
(
[contactID],
[contactTypeID]
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO

INSERT tblContactTypeToContact (contactID, contactTypeID)
VALUES (1, 50)
INSERT tblContactTypeToContact (contactID, contactTypeID)
VALUES (1, 51)
INSERT tblContactTypeToContact (contactID, contactTypeID)
VALUES (2, 50)
INSERT tblContactTypeToContact (contactID, contactTypeID)
VALUES (2, 51)
INSERT tblContactTypeToContact (contactID, contactTypeID)
VALUES (3, 50)
INSERT tblContactTypeToContact (contactID, contactTypeID)
VALUES (3, 54)

[David Portas]

Your query looks correct to me but the following is easier to extend to any
number of values of contacttypeid:

SELECT contactid
FROM tblContactTypeToContact
WHERE contacttypeid IN (50,51)
GROUP BY contactid
HAVING COUNT(*)=2

If you need to be able to define the required types at runtime then put them
into another table first:

CREATE TABLE ContactTypes (contacttypeid INTEGER PRIMARY KEY)

INSERT INTO ContactTypes VALUES (50)
INSERT INTO ContactTypes VALUES (51)

SELECT C.contactid
FROM tblContactTypeToContact AS C
JOIN ContactTypes AS T
ON C.contacttypeid = T.contacttypeid
GROUP BY C.contactid
HAVING COUNT(*) =
(SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM ContactTypes)

--
David Portas
SQL Server MVP
--

[Ian T]

Hiya,

Thanks for the very quick reply. That looks perfect.

We looked at that for at least an hour yesterday :-)

Cheers,

Ian

"David Portas" <RE****************************@acm.org> wrote in message
news:3L********************@giganews.com...

Your query looks correct to me but the following is easier to extend to any number of values of contacttypeid:

SELECT contactid
FROM tblContactTypeToContact
WHERE contacttypeid IN (50,51)
GROUP BY contactid
HAVING COUNT(*)=2

If you need to be able to define the required types at runtime then put them into another table first:

CREATE TABLE ContactTypes (contacttypeid INTEGER PRIMARY KEY)

INSERT INTO ContactTypes VALUES (50)
INSERT INTO ContactTypes VALUES (51)

SELECT C.contactid
FROM tblContactTypeToContact AS C
JOIN ContactTypes AS T
ON C.contacttypeid = T.contacttypeid
GROUP BY C.contactid
HAVING COUNT(*) =
(SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM ContactTypes)

--
David Portas
SQL Server MVP
--

[--CELKO--]

Relational division is one of the eight basic operations in Codd's
relational algebra. The idea is that a divisor table is used to
partition a dividend table and produce a quotient or results table.
The quotient table is made up of those values of one column for which
a second column had all of the values in the divisor.

This is easier to explain with an example. We have a table of pilots
and the planes they can fly (dividend); we have a table of planes in
the hangar (divisor); we want the names of the pilots who can fly
every plane (quotient) in the hangar. To get this result, we divide
the PilotSkills table by the planes in the hangar.

CREATE TABLE PilotSkills
(pilot CHAR(15) NOT NULL,
plane CHAR(15) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (pilot, plane));

PilotSkills
pilot plane
=========================
'Celko' 'Piper Cub'
'Higgins' 'B-52 Bomber'
'Higgins' 'F-14 Fighter'
'Higgins' 'Piper Cub'
'Jones' 'B-52 Bomber'
'Jones' 'F-14 Fighter'
'Smith' 'B-1 Bomber'
'Smith' 'B-52 Bomber'
'Smith' 'F-14 Fighter'
'Wilson' 'B-1 Bomber'
'Wilson' 'B-52 Bomber'
'Wilson' 'F-14 Fighter'
'Wilson' 'F-17 Fighter'

CREATE TABLE Hangar
(plane CHAR(15) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY);

Hangar
plane
=============
'B-1 Bomber'
'B-52 Bomber'
'F-14 Fighter'

PilotSkills DIVIDED BY Hangar
pilot
=============================
'Smith'
'Wilson'

In this example, Smith and Wilson are the two pilots who can fly
everything in the hangar. Notice that Higgins and Celko know how to
fly a Piper Cub, but we don't have one right now. In Codd's original
definition of relational division, having more rows than are called
for is not a problem.

The important characteristic of a relational division is that the
CROSS JOIN (Cartesian product) of the divisor and the quotient
produces a valid subset of rows from the dividend. This is where the
name comes from, since the CROSS JOIN acts like a multiplication
operator.

Division with a Remainder

There are two kinds of relational division. Division with a remainder
allows the dividend table to have more values than the divisor, which
was Codd's original definition. For example, if a pilot can fly more
planes than just those we have in the hangar, this is fine with us.
The query can be written in SQL-89 as

SELECT DISTINCT pilot
FROM PilotSkills AS PS1
WHERE NOT EXISTS
(SELECT *
FROM Hangar
WHERE NOT EXISTS
(SELECT *
FROM PilotSkills AS PS2
WHERE (PS1.pilot = PS2.pilot)
AND (PS2.plane = Hangar.plane)));

The quickest way to explain what is happening in this query is to
imagine an old World War II movie where a cocky pilot has just walked
into the hangar, looked over the fleet, and announced, "There ain't no
plane in this hangar that I can't fly!" We are finding the pilots for
whom there does not exist a plane in the hangar for which they have no
skills. The use of the NOT EXISTS() predicates is for speed. Most
SQL systems will look up a value in an index rather than scan the
whole table. The SELECT * clause lets the query optimizer choose the
column to use when looking for the index.

This query for relational division was made popular by Chris Date in
his textbooks, but it is not the only method nor always the fastest.
Another version of the division can be written so as to avoid three
levels of nesting. While it is not original with me, I have made it
popular in my books.

SELECT PS1.pilot
FROM PilotSkills AS PS1, Hangar AS H1
WHERE PS1.plane = H1.plane
GROUP BY PS1.pilot
HAVING COUNT(PS1.plane) = (SELECT COUNT(plane) FROM Hangar);

There is a serious difference in the two methods. Burn down the
hangar, so that the divisor is empty. Because of the NOT EXISTS()
predicates in Date's query, all pilots are returned from a division by
an empty set. Because of the COUNT() functions in my query, no pilots
are returned from a division by an empty set.

In the sixth edition of his book, INTRODUCTION TO DATABASE SYSTEMS
(Addison-Wesley; 1995 ;ISBN 0-201-82458-2), Chris Date defined another
operator (DIVIDEBY ... PER) which produces the same results as my
query, but with more complexity.

Exact Division

The second kind of relational division is exact relational division.
The dividend table must match exactly to the values of the divisor
without any extra values.

SELECT PS1.pilot
FROM PilotSkills AS PS1
LEFT OUTER JOIN
Hangar AS H1
ON PS1.plane = H1.plane
GROUP BY PS1.pilot
HAVING COUNT(PS1.plane) = (SELECT COUNT(plane) FROM Hangar)
AND COUNT(H1.plane) = (SELECT COUNT(plane) FROM Hangar);

This says that a pilot must have the same number of certificates as
there planes in the hangar and these certificates all match to a plane
in the hangar, not something else. The "something else" is shown by a
created NULL from the LEFT OUTER JOIN.

Please do not make the mistake of trying to reduce the HAVING clause
with a little algebra to:

HAVING COUNT(PS1.plane) = COUNT(H1.plane)

because it does not work; it will tell you that the hangar has (n)
planes in it and the pilot is certified for (n) planes, but not that
those two sets of planes are equal to each other.

Note on Performance

The nested EXISTS() predicates version of relational division was made
popular by Chris Date's textbooks, while the author is associated with
popularizing the COUNT(*) version of relational division. The Winter
1996 edition of DB2 ON-LINE MAGAZINE
(http://www.db2mag.com/96011ar:htm) had an article entitled "Powerful
SQL:Beyond the Basics" by Sheryl Larsen which gave the results of
testing both methods. Her conclusion for DB2 was that the nested
EXISTS() version is better when the quotient has less than 25% of the
dividend table's rows and the COUNT(*) version is better when the
quotient is more than 25% of the dividend table.