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CONNECT BY clause
Applies to ✅ Open Source Edition ✅ Express Edition ✅ Professional Edition ✅ Enterprise Edition
The Oracle database knows a very succinct syntax for creating hierarchical queries: the CONNECT BY clause, which is fully supported by jOOQ, including all related functions and pseudo-columns. A more or less formal definition of this clause is given here:
-- SELECT .. -- FROM .. -- WHERE .. CONNECT BY [ NOCYCLE ] condition [ AND condition, ... ] [ START WITH condition ] -- GROUP BY .. -- ORDER [ SIBLINGS ] BY ..
An example for an iterative query, iterating through values between 1 and 5 is this:
SELECT LEVEL FROM DUAL CONNECT BY LEVEL <= 5
// Get a table with elements 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
create.select(level())
.connectBy(level().le(5));
Here's a more complex example where you can recursively fetch directories in your database, and concatenate them to a path:
SELECT SUBSTR(SYS_CONNECT_BY_PATH(DIRECTORY.NAME, '/'), 2) FROM DIRECTORY CONNECT BY PRIOR DIRECTORY.ID = DIRECTORY.PARENT_ID START WITH DIRECTORY.PARENT_ID IS NULL ORDER BY 1
.select( substring(sysConnectByPath(DIRECTORY.NAME, "/"), 2)) .from(DIRECTORY) .connectBy( prior(DIRECTORY.ID).eq(DIRECTORY.PARENT_ID)) .startWith(DIRECTORY.PARENT_ID.isNull()) .orderBy(1);
The output might then look like this
+------------------------------------------------+ |substring | +------------------------------------------------+ |C: | |C:/eclipse | |C:/eclipse/configuration | |C:/eclipse/dropins | |C:/eclipse/eclipse.exe | +------------------------------------------------+ |...21 record(s) truncated...
Some of the supported functions and pseudo-columns are these (available from the DSL):
- LEVEL
- CONNECT_BY_IS_CYCLE
- CONNECT_BY_IS_LEAF
- CONNECT_BY_ROOT
- SYS_CONNECT_BY_PATH
- PRIOR
Note that this syntax is also supported in the CUBRID database and might be emulated in other dialects supporting common table expressions in the future.
ORDER SIBLINGS
The Oracle database allows for specifying a SIBLINGS keyword in the ORDER BY clause. Instead of ordering the overall result, this will only order siblings among each other, keeping the hierarchy intact. An example is given here:
SELECT DIRECTORY.NAME FROM DIRECTORY CONNECT BY PRIOR DIRECTORY.ID = DIRECTORY.PARENT_ID START WITH DIRECTORY.PARENT_ID IS NULL ORDER SIBLINGS BY 1
.select(DIRECTORY.NAME) .from(DIRECTORY) .connectBy( prior(DIRECTORY.ID).eq(DIRECTORY.PARENT_ID)) .startWith(DIRECTORY.PARENT_ID.isNull()) .orderSiblingsBy(1);
