Find the lowest common parent in a SQL recursive table

Question

Suppose I have a recursive table (e.g. employees with managers) and a list of 0..nidentifier sizes . How to find the lowest common parent for these identifiers?

For example, if my table looks like this:

Id | ParentId
---|---------
 1 |     NULL
 2 |        1
 3 |        1
 4 |        2
 5 |        2
 6 |        3
 7 |        3
 8 |        7

Then the following sets ids lead to the following results (the first is the angular case):

[]      => 1 (or NULL, doesn't really matter)
[1]     => 1
[2]     => 2
[1,8]   => 1
[4,5]   => 2
[4,6]   => 1
[6,7,8] => 3

How to do it?

EDIT: Note that the parent is not the correct term in all cases. This is the lowest common node on all roads up the tree. The lowest common node can also be the node itself (for example, in the case [1,8] => 1, node is 1not the parent of the node 1, but node 1).

Regards, Ronald

Answer 1

Marc (), :

DECLARE @parentChild TABLE (Id INT NOT NULL, ParentId INT NULL);
INSERT INTO @parentChild VALUES (1, NULL);
INSERT INTO @parentChild VALUES (2, 1);
INSERT INTO @parentChild VALUES (3, 1);
INSERT INTO @parentChild VALUES (4, 2);
INSERT INTO @parentChild VALUES (5, 2);
INSERT INTO @parentChild VALUES (6, 3);
INSERT INTO @parentChild VALUES (7, 3);
INSERT INTO @parentChild VALUES (8, 7);

DECLARE @ids TABLE (Id INT NOT NULL);
INSERT INTO @ids VALUES (6);
INSERT INTO @ids VALUES (7);
INSERT INTO @ids VALUES (8);

DECLARE @count INT;
SELECT @count = COUNT(1) FROM @ids;

WITH Nodes(Id, ParentId, Depth) AS
(
    -- Start from every node in the @ids collection.
    SELECT pc.Id , pc.ParentId , 0 AS DEPTH
    FROM @parentChild pc
    JOIN @ids i ON pc.Id = i.Id

    UNION ALL

    -- Recursively find parent nodes for each starting node.
    SELECT pc.Id , pc.ParentId , n.Depth - 1
    FROM @parentChild pc
    JOIN Nodes n ON pc.Id = n.ParentId
)
SELECT n.Id
FROM Nodes n
GROUP BY n.Id
HAVING COUNT(n.Id) = @count
ORDER BY MIN(n.Depth) DESC

node, TOP 1 .

Answer 2

; CTE node "CROSS APPLY" , ; @ids ( ):

----------------------------------------- SETUP
CREATE TABLE MyData (
   Id int NOT NULL,
   ParentId int NULL)

INSERT MyData VALUES (1,NULL)
INSERT MyData VALUES (2,1)
INSERT MyData VALUES (3,1)
INSERT MyData VALUES (4,2)
INSERT MyData VALUES (5,2)
INSERT MyData VALUES (6,3)
INSERT MyData VALUES (7,3)
INSERT MyData VALUES (8,7)

GO
CREATE FUNCTION AncestorsUdf (@Id int)
RETURNS TABLE
AS
RETURN (
    WITH Ancestors (Id, ParentId)
    AS (
        SELECT Id, ParentId
        FROM MyData
        WHERE Id = @Id
        UNION ALL
        SELECT md.Id, md.ParentId
        FROM MyData md
        INNER JOIN Ancestors a
          ON md.Id = a.ParentId
    )
    SELECT Id FROM Ancestors
);
GO
----------------------------------------- ACTUAL QUERY
DECLARE @ids TABLE (Id int NOT NULL)
DECLARE @Count int
-- your data (perhaps via a "split" udf)
INSERT @ids VALUES (6)
INSERT @ids VALUES (7)
INSERT @ids VALUES (8)

SELECT @Count = COUNT(1) FROM @ids
;
SELECT TOP 1 a.Id
FROM @ids
CROSS APPLY AncestorsUdf(Id) AS a
GROUP BY a.Id
HAVING COUNT(1) = @Count
ORDER BY a.ID DESC

---

, :

CREATE FUNCTION AncestorsUdf (@Id int)
RETURNS @result TABLE (Id int, [Level] int)
AS
BEGIN
    WITH Ancestors (Id, ParentId, RelLevel)
    AS (
        SELECT Id, ParentId, 0
        FROM MyData
        WHERE Id = @Id
        UNION ALL
        SELECT md.Id, md.ParentId, a.RelLevel - 1
        FROM MyData md
        INNER JOIN Ancestors a
          ON md.Id = a.ParentId
    )

    INSERT @result
    SELECT Id, RelLevel FROM Ancestors

    DECLARE @Min int
    SELECT @Min = MIN([Level]) FROM @result

    UPDATE @result SET [Level] = [Level] - @Min

    RETURN
END
GO

SELECT TOP 1 a.Id
FROM @ids
CROSS APPLY AncestorsUdf(Id) AS a
GROUP BY a.Id, a.[Level]
HAVING COUNT(1) = @Count
ORDER BY a.[Level] DESC