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Alice and Assignments

without comments

As I continue down the warren hole of Persistent Stored Modules (SQL/PSM) in MySQL, I keep wondering about that mad hare, Johnny Depp. Alice isn’t a programming language to teach me anything in this dream. Moreover, TIm Burton’s tale this seems oddly familiar, like a child’s story gone mad.

A quick update on comparative SQL expression assignments between PL/SQL and MySQL. When you want to filter a value through SQL functions before assigning it to another variable in MySQL, it’s not like PL/SQL. Just like the new Alice in Wonderland movie isn’t like the book.

The programmatic differences lies in their origins. PL/SQL evolved from Pascal through Ada to become a recursive language where you can call SQL from PL/SQL and PL/SQL from SQL. MySQL implemented PSMs from the ANSI SQL:2003 specification, which didn’t see it the same way, apparently (a disclaimer since I’ve not read the details of the specification).

Personally, I think PL/SQL is easier to write but I’ve been using it for almost 20 years. Naturally, there may be a consistency thread on this that I’m missing and an opportunity that I may exploit. After all, it is dark in this warren hole.

Oracle PL/SQL Assignments from SQL Expressions

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-- Enable output printing.
SET SERVEROUTPUT ON SIZE 1000000
 
-- Define an anonymous block.
DECLARE
 
  -- Declare a source variable.
  lv_right_operand VARCHAR2(10) := 'March';
 
  -- Define a target variable for the assignment.
  lv_left_operand  VARCHAR2(10);
 
BEGIN
 
  -- Return the expression from a nested call parameter of the source variable.
  lv_left_operand := UPPER(SUBSTR(lv_right_operand,1,3));
 
  -- Print it to console.
  dbms_output.put_line('Output ['||lv_left_operand||']');
 
END;
/

Oracle also supports this syntax, which isn’t frequently used because it’s much more verbose syntactically. It is also equivalent to the PSM syntax adopted by MySQL.

-- Define an anonymous block.
DECLARE
 
  -- Declare a source variable.
  lv_right_operand VARCHAR2(10) := 'March';
 
  -- Define a target variable for the assignment.
  lv_left_operand  VARCHAR2(10);
 
BEGIN
 
  -- Return the expression from a nested call parameter of the source variable.
  SELECT UPPER(SUBSTR(lv_right_operand,1,3)) INTO lv_left_operand FROM dual;
 
  -- Print it to console.
  dbms_output.put_line('Output ['||lv_left_operand||']');
 
END;
/

That means we can do it like the White Queen wants it or the Red Queen wants it in Oracle. Flexibility in PL/SQL is clearly broader because of the assignment options. Not so in MySQL, as you’ll see.

MySQL PSM Assignment from SQL Expressions

First, MySQL’s PSM approach doesn’t support anonymous blocks. The example must create a stored function or procedure, and then call it. A procedure seems like the best fit for the example.

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-- Conditionally drop procedure.
SELECT 'DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS assignit' AS "Statement";
DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS assignit;
 
-- Create the proceudre
SELECT 'CREATE PROCEDURE assignit' AS "Statement";
 
DELIMITER $$
 
-- Define the procedure.
CREATE PROCEDURE assignit()
BEGIN
  /* Declare a source variable. */
  DECLARE lv_right_operand VARCHAR(10) DEFAULT 'March';
 
  /* Define a target variable for the assignment. */
  DECLARE lv_left_operand  VARCHAR(3);
 
  /* Assign the modified value through the SELECT-INTO model. */
  SELECT UCASE(SUBSTRING(lv_right_operand,1,3)) INTO lv_left_operand;
 
  /* Display assigned value. */
  SELECT lv_left_operand;
 
END;
$$
 
DELIMITER ;
 
-- Call the procedure.
CALL assignit();

The only question here in the warren is: Who’s the White Queen; and who’s the Red Queen. Which semantic should I choose? My I hope is that I wake up before it’s … oops, off with his head. Actually, 3D or not, I’ll probably not see it, that’s the new Alice in Wonderland film.

Likewise, when my students wake up and read this they’ll know I was just answering a question on how to perform assignments in MySQL stored procedures. By the way, I’ve updated this assignment process in my Debugging MySQL Procedures post.

As an aside, I’ve got a new MySQL debugger that I’m testing later in the week. When I complete the test cases, I’ll post a review.

Written by maclochlainn

March 15th, 2010 at 10:59 pm

Posted in MySQL,Oracle,pl/sql,PSM,sql

MySQL Standard Group By

with 9 comments

Teaching SQL is interesting because folks try syntax that experience would tell you shouldn’t work. It was interesting when I discovered what should be broken from my perspective but was expected behavior in MySQL. It became clearer to me why it’s there as I did some experimenting with it enabled and disabled. While I’d still argue it’s broken, it’s the only way to get support for advanced aggregation concepts.

The reason that I find that it broken is a matter of perspective not standards. The fact that you can select a set of non-aggregated columns with an aggregated column, and exclude one, more than one, or all of the non-aggregated columns from the GROUP BY clause seemed like a broken behavior. The MySQL behavior is explained in Chapter 11.12.3 of the MySQL 5.1 Reference. What wasn’t clear from the documentation when I read it was why the behavior is allowed. Gary’s comment on the original post made me look more deeply into the behavior.

If you check the referenced documentation, the process is called GROUP BY hidden columns. That label didn’t immediately resonate with me. That’s probably of my background with IBM’s DB2 and Oracle. I’m so accustom to how they work, that sometimes I think they set the standards but they don’t. It turns out that the GROUP BY clause in the ANSI SQL standards doesn’t allow for expressions.

The default configuration of MySQL allows for the expressions (functions) in the GROUP BY clause. The documentation refers to hidden columns, which are in point of fact expressions in the GROUP BY clause. MySQL does support expressions in the GROUP BY by default, and requires, like Oracle, that when you use an expression in the SELECT clause that you mirror it in the GROUP BY clause. This means you group on the result of the expression, not a column in the table or view.

In the default configuration, you have three options. They are determinate results, indeterminate results, and hidden column results. The following cover these components.

Determinate Results

Determinate results are straight forward. They require that all non-aggregated columns in the SELECT clause are mirrored in the GROUP BY clause. This means that the non-aggregated column values are the key upon which results are aggregated.

An example of determinate results is:

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SELECT   key_one
,        key_two
,        SUM(counter)
FROM     GROUPING
GROUP BY key_one
,        key_two;

Indeterminate Results

Indeterminate results isn’t straight forward but isn’t hard to grasp. An indeterminate result set is returned when one or more non-aggregated columns in a SELECT clause aren’t listed in the GROUP BY clause. The columns listed in the SELECT clause but excluded from the GROUP BY clause return meaningless values because they’re column values chosen indeterminately from all pre-aggregated rows.

The following query runs in a generically configured MySQL instance without an error. It returns a meaningless key_two column value from the pre-aggregated row set. In the example, the aggregation column counts the unique key_one column values. This behavior makes key_one a determinate value, and key_two an indeterminate value.

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SELECT   key_one
,        key_two
,        SUM(counter)
FROM     GROUPING
GROUP BY key_one;

You can fix this mixed return set by adding the key_two column to the GROUP BY clause, which would return a determinate set. Alternatively, you can prevent the default behavior for the GROUP BY clause by adding the ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY mode variable to your SQL_MODE system variable.

After setting the SQL_MODE> variable, a GROUP BY must contain all non-aggregated columns. When you make this change to the SQL_MODE system variable, you also disable any queries that use an expression in their GROUP BY clause. Those queries with expressions in the group by will now raise an ERROR 1055 exception, like this:

ERROR 1055 (42000): 'sampledb.grouping.key_two' isn't in GROUP BY

If you want to prevent indeterminate results and don’t use expressions in the GROUP BY clause, you can add the ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY mode to your SQL_MODE system variable. You can do that during a session with the following syntax:

SET SQL_MODE=(SELECT CONCAT(@@sql_mode,',ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY'));

Or, you can start the mysqld with the following option:

mysqld --sql_mode="sql_mode1,sql_mode2, ... ,sql_mode(n+1)"

A better alternative, is to add it to the my.cnf configuration file on Linux, or my.ini configuration file on Windows. You can add it to this line, which is done at the end of the line.

# Set the SQL mode to strict
sql-mode="STRICT_TRANS_TABLES,NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER,NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION,ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY"

If you opt for changing it at the server configuration file, you must stop and restart the mysqld process. You can do that on Windows from the command line, like this on Windows provide the service name is mysql. If you’ve set the Windows service to mysql51, then you need to substitute mysql51 for mysql.

Hidden Column Results

A hidden column result, is a result generated by an expression in the GROUP BY clause. The following is a query that lets you sum transactions by the month name. This is supported by the default behavior of hidden columns. The following is an approach that you might find in Oracle because they don’t support aggregation by only part of the non-aggregated columns in a query.

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SELECT   il.month AS "MON-YEAR"
,        il.base AS "BASE"
,        il.plus10 AS "10_PLUS"
,        il.plus20 AS "20_PLUS"
FROM    (SELECT   CONCAT(UPPER(SUBSTRING(MONTHNAME(t.transaction_date),1,3)),'-',EXTRACT(YEAR FROM t.transaction_date)) AS MONTH
         ,        MONTH(t.transaction_date) AS sortkey
         ,        LPAD(CONCAT('$',FORMAT(SUM(t.transaction_amount) * 1.0,2)),10,' ') AS base
         ,        LPAD(CONCAT('$',FORMAT(SUM(t.transaction_amount) * 1.1,2)),10,' ') AS plus10
         ,        LPAD(CONCAT('$',FORMAT(SUM(t.transaction_amount) * 1.2,2)),10,' ') AS plus20
         FROM     TRANSACTION t
         WHERE    EXTRACT(YEAR FROM t.transaction_date) = 2009
         GROUP BY CONCAT(UPPER(SUBSTRING(MONTHNAME(t.transaction_date),1,3)),'-',EXTRACT(YEAR FROM t.transaction_date))
         ,        MONTH(t.transaction_date)) il
ORDER BY il.sortkey;

The interesting thing about MySQL’s approach is that the Oracle equivalent of an inline view is unnecessary. You can simply switch the functions like the exmaple below.

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SELECT   DATE_FORMAT(t.transaction_date,'%m-%Y') AS MONTH
,        MONTH(t.transaction_date) AS sortkey
,        LPAD(CONCAT('$',FORMAT(SUM(t.transaction_amount) * 1.0,2)),10,' ') AS base
,        LPAD(CONCAT('$',FORMAT(SUM(t.transaction_amount) * 1.1,2)),10,' ') AS plus10
,        LPAD(CONCAT('$',FORMAT(SUM(t.transaction_amount) * 1.2,2)),10,' ') AS plus20
FROM     TRANSACTION t
WHERE    EXTRACT(YEAR FROM t.transaction_date) = 2009
GROUP BY DATE_FORMAT(t.transaction_date,'%m-%Y')
,        MONTH(t.transaction_date)
ORDER BY sortkey;

When you add the ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY mode to your SQL_MODE system variable, you disallow this type of behavior and the query would no longer work. It would return the following error:

ERROR 1055 (42000): 'sampledb.t.transaction_date' isn't in GROUP BY

Written by maclochlainn

March 10th, 2010 at 12:54 am

Posted in LAMP,MAMP,MySQL,sql

Debugging MySQL Procedures

with 2 comments

In my second database class we focus on PL/SQL but we’ve begun highlighting the alternatives in MySQL and SQL Server. A student asked how they could debug runtime variable values in a MySQL Stored Procedure (or subroutines according to some documentation). You can see this post for how to create an equivalent solutions for MySQL functions.

In Oracle, we debug with the DBMS_OUTPUT package. Packages, like DBMS_OUTPUT hold related functions and procedures, and are a corollary to System.out.println() in Java.

Before you can see the output at the command-line in Oracle (that is if you’re not using SQL*Developer or Toad), you must set a SQL*Plus environment variable. These variables don’t exist in MySQL or SQL Server command-line tools because they never served the function of a report writer like SQL*Plus.

You enable output display in Oracle by setting this in SQL*Plus:

SQL> SET SERVEROUTPUT ON SIZE 1000000

You can test your anonymous or named block. Since MySQL doesn’t support anonymous named block, the examples using a trivial procedure that prints Hello World! (orginal, right ;-)).

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-- Create a procedure in Oracle.
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE hello_world IS
BEGIN
  -- Print a word without a line return.
  DBMS_OUTPUT.put('Hello ');
  -- Print the rest of the phrase and a line return.
  DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('World!');
END;
/
 
-- Call the procedure.
EXECUTE hello_world;

It’s seems useless to print the output because it should be evident. MySQL procedures are a bit different because there’s no OR REPLACE syntax. The equivalent to calling the DBMS_OUTPUT package procedures in MySQL is to simply select a string. Now you can do this with or without the FROM dual clause in MySQL, don’t we wish we could do the same thing in Oracle. 🙂

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-- Conditionally drop the procedure.
SELECT 'DROP PROCEDURE hello_world' AS "Statement";
DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS hello_world;
 
-- Reset the delimiter to write a procedure.
DELIMITER $$
 
-- Create a procedure in Oracle.
CREATE PROCEDURE hello_world()
BEGIN
  -- Print the phrase and a line return.
  SELECT 'Hello World!';
END;
$$
 
-- Reset the delimiter back to a semicolon to work again.
DELIMITER ;
 
-- Call the procedure.
SELECT 'CALL hello_world' AS "Statement";
CALL hello_world();

Originally, I tried to keep this short but somebody wanted an example in a loop. Ouch, loops are so verbose in MySQL. Since I was modifying this post, it seemed like a good idea to put down some guidelines for successful development too.

Guidelines for Development of Procedures

Declaration Guidelines

The sequencing of components in MySQL procedures is important. Unlike, PL/SQL, there’s no declaration block, declarations must be at the top of the execution block. They also must appear in the following order:

  1. Variable declarations must go first, you can assign initial values with the DEFAULT keyword. While not required, you should:
  • Consider using something like lv_ to identify them as local variables for clarity and support of your code.
  • Consider grouping local variables that relate to handlers at the bottom of the list of variables.
  1. After local variables and before handlers, you put your cursor definitions. You should note that MySQL doesn’t support explicit dynamic cursors, which means you can’t define one with a formal signature. However, you do have prepared statements and they mimic dynamic cursor behaviors.
  2. Last in your declaration block, you declare your handler events.

Execution Guidelines

  1. Variable assignments are made one of two ways:
  • You should start each execution block with a START TRANSACTION and then a SAVEPOINT, which ensures the procedure acts like a cohesive programming unit.
  • You assign a left_operand = right_operand; as a statement.
  • You use the SELECT column INTO variable; syntax to filter a value through SQL functions and assign the resulting expression to a local variable.
  • You assign a single row cursor output to variables using a SELECT column INTO variable FROM ....
  1. You must assign values from cursors called in a loop into local variables when you want to use the results in nested SQL statements or loops.
  2. You must reset looping variables, like the fetched control variable at the end of the loop to reuse the handler variable in subsequent loops.
  3. You must assign values to local variables if you want to use them in the exception handler.
  4. If you’ve started a transaction, don’t forget to COMMIT your work.

Exception Guidelines

  1. Leave out the exception handler until you’ve tested all outcomes, and make sure you document them and add them as potential handlers.
  2. When you deploy exception blocks, they’re the last element at the bottom of the exception block.
  3. You should consider explicit exception handlers for each error unless the action taken is the same.
  4. You should consider grouping all exception handlers when the action taken is the same.
  5. You should include a ROLLBACK whenever you’ve performed two or more SQL statements that may modify data.

Below is an example for putting debug code inside a loop.

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-- Conditionally drop a sample table.
SELECT 'DROP TABLE IF EXISTS sample' AS "Statement";
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS sample;
 
-- Create a table.
CREATE TABLE sample
( sample_id    INT UNSIGNED PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT
, sample_msg   VARCHAR(20));
 
-- Insert into sample.
INSERT INTO sample (sample_msg) VALUES
 ('Message #1')
,('Message #2')
,('Message #3');
 
-- Conditionally drop the procedure.
SELECT 'DROP PROCEDURE debug_loop' AS "Statement";
DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS debug_loop;
 
-- Reset the delimiter to write a procedure.
DELIMITER $$
 
-- Create a procedure in Oracle.
CREATE PROCEDURE debug_loop()
BEGIN
 
  /* Declare a counter variable. */
  DECLARE lv_counter INT DEFAULT 1;
 
  /* Declare local control loop variables. */
  DECLARE lv_sample_id  INT;
  DECLARE lv_sample_msg VARCHAR(20);
 
  /* Declare a local variable for a subsequent handler. */
  DECLARE duplicate_key INT DEFAULT 0;
  DECLARE fetched INT DEFAULT 0;
 
  /* Declare a SQL cursor fabricated from local variables. */  
  DECLARE sample_cursor CURSOR FOR
    SELECT * FROM sample;
 
  /* Declare a duplicate key handler */
  DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR 1062 SET duplicate_key = 1;
 
  /* Declare a not found record handler to close a cursor loop. */
  DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR NOT FOUND SET fetched = 1;
 
  /* Start transaction context. */
  START TRANSACTION;
 
  /* Set savepoint. */  
  SAVEPOINT all_or_none;
 
  /* Open a sample cursor. */
  OPEN sample_cursor;
  cursor_sample: LOOP
 
    /* Fetch a row at a time. */  
    FETCH sample_cursor
    INTO  lv_sample_id
    ,     lv_sample_msg;
 
    /* Place the catch handler for no more rows found
       immediately after the fetch operation.          */
    IF fetched = 1 THEN LEAVE cursor_sample; END IF;
 
    -- Print the cursor values.
    SELECT CONCAT('Row #',lv_counter,' [',lv_sample_id,'][',lv_sample_msg,']') AS "Rows";
 
    -- Increment counter variable.
    SET lv_counter = lv_counter + 1;
 
  END LOOP cursor_sample;
  CLOSE sample_cursor;
 
  /* This acts as an exception handling block. */  
  IF duplicate_key = 1 THEN
 
    /* This undoes all DML statements to this point in the procedure. */
    ROLLBACK TO SAVEPOINT all_or_none;
 
  END IF;
 
END;
$$
 
-- Reset the delimiter back to a semicolon to work again.
DELIMITER ;
 
-- Call the procedure.
SELECT 'CALL debug_loop' AS "Statement";
CALL debug_loop();

This post certainly answers the student question. Hopefully, it also helps other who must migrate Oracle skills to MySQL. Since IBM DB2 has introduced a PL/SQL equivalent, wouldn’t it be nice if Oracle did that for MySQL. That is, migrate PL/SQL to MySQL. Don’t tell me if you think that’s a pipe dream, I’d like to hope for that change.

Written by maclochlainn

February 27th, 2010 at 11:01 pm

MySQL Boolean Data Type

with 11 comments

Somebody posted a quick question about the outcome of defining a table with a bool data type in PHPMyAdmin. They were subsequently surprised when they checked the MySQL database and found that it was actually a tinyint(1). The natural question they had was: “What do you enter – true/false or 1/0?”

I promised to post an answer tonight, and morning counts too. You can enter a true or false because they’re synonyms for a 1 or 0 respectively. TINYINT is the supported data type, and BIT, BOOL, and BOOLEAN are synonyms for the base data type.

Here’s an example in MySQL:

mysql> CREATE TABLE data_type (TYPE bool);
 
mysql> DESCRIBE data_type;
+-------+------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| FIELD | TYPE       | NULL | KEY | DEFAULT | Extra |
+-------+------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| TYPE  | tinyint(1) | YES  |     | NULL    |       |
+-------+------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
 
mysql> INSERT INTO data_type VALUES (TRUE),(FALSE);
 
mysql> SELECT * FROM data_type;
+------+
| TYPE |
+------+
|    1 |
|    0 |
+------+

The comment below raises the question of what happens with values in the valid range of TINYINT that aren’t 0 or 1, like 5. The simple answer is they’re not valid when compared against the true and false constants, as you can see by creating the following example.

-- Create a test table.
CREATE TABLE verify
( verify_id  INT UNSIGNED PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT
, range_1    tinyint UNSIGNED
, range_2    tinyint );
 
-- Insert test values.
INSERT INTO verify
VALUES
 (NULL, 0, 0)
,(NULL, 1, 1)
,(NULL, 1,-1)
,(NULL, 2, 2);
 
-- Query results.
SELECT range_1 AS "Value"
,      CASE
         WHEN range_1 = TRUE THEN 'True'
         WHEN range_1 = FALSE THEN 'False'
         ELSE 'Invalid'
       END AS "Unsigned"
,      range_2 AS "Value"
,      CASE
         WHEN range_2 = TRUE  THEN 'True'
         WHEN range_2 = FALSE THEN 'False'
         ELSE 'Invalid'
       END AS "Signed"
FROM   verify;

The results of the test demonstrate that only a 0 or 1 value validates against the false or true constants, as shown:

+-------+----------+-------+---------+
| Value | Unsigned | Value | Signed  |
+-------+----------+-------+---------+
|     0 | False    |     0 | False   |
|     1 | True     |     1 | True    |
|     1 | True     |    -1 | Invalid |
|     2 | Invalid  |     2 | Invalid |
+-------+----------+-------+---------+

Based on the comment, the 256 value range of TINYINT is found here.

Written by maclochlainn

February 26th, 2010 at 2:32 am

Posted in MAMP,MySQL,PHPMyAdmin,sql

SQL Aggregation Tutorial

without comments

I’ve been working on a Basic Aggregation tutorial for my students. I think this might be close to what may benefit them. However, I thought it would be great to put it out there and solicit ideas. If you have some on improving this post, please let me know.

My first take at the post …

This is a lesson on basic aggregation in SQL. Aggregation in SQL means counting, adding, and grouping by results of counts or sums. Aggregation is a critical part of using the SQL language. At a basic level, aggregation includes the COUNT, SUM, AVERAGE, MAX, and MIN aggregation functions; and the ORDER BY, GROUP BY, and HAVING clauses.

You’ll find the setup scripts for these examples at the bottom of this blog page. The best way to use this page is to copy the setup code, run it in your database, and then test the examples as you work though them.

Written by maclochlainn

February 26th, 2010 at 1:29 am

Multi-row Merge in MySQL

with 3 comments

After I wrote the post for students on the multiple row MERGE statement for an upload through an external table in Oracle, I thought to check how it might be done with MySQL. More or less because I try to keep track of how things are done in several databases.

MySQL’s equivalent to a MERGE statement is an INSERT statement with an ON DUPLICATE KEY clause, which I blogged about a while back. You may also use the REPLACE INTO when you want to merge more than one row. At the time that I wrote this, I thought there wasn’t support for an INSERT ON DUPLICATE KEY clause statement with a subquery but I found that I was wrong. Fortunately, somebody posted a comment to remind me about this and now both solutions are here for anybody that would like them.

The workaround with a VALUES clause was to write a stored procedure with two cursor loops, explicitly pass the values from the cursor to local variables, and then put the local variables in the VALUES clause. I’ll post the other with a subquery soon. On parity, clearly Oracle’s MERGE statement (shown here) is far superior than MySQL’s approach.

Demonstration

Here are the steps to accomplish an import/upload with the INSERT statement and ON DUPLICATE KEY clause. In this example, you upload data from a flat file, or Comma Separated Value (CSV) file to a denormalized table (actually in unnormalized form). This type of file upload transfers information that doesn’t have surrogate key values. You have to create those in the scope of the transformation to the normalized tables.

Step #1 : Position your CSV file in the physical directory

After creating the virtual directory, copy the following contents into a file named kingdom_mysql_import.csv in the C:\Data\Download directory or folder. If you have Windows UAC enabled in Windows Vista or 7, you should disable it before performing this step.

Place the following in the kingdom_mysql_import.csv file. The trailing commas are meaningful in MySQL and avoid problems when reading CSV files.

Narnia, 77600,'Peter the Magnificent',12720320,12920609,
Narnia, 77600,'Edmund the Just',12720320,12920609,
Narnia, 77600,'Susan the Gentle',12720320,12920609,
Narnia, 77600,'Lucy the Valiant',12720320,12920609,
Narnia, 42100,'Peter the Magnificent',15310412,15310531,
Narnia, 42100,'Edmund the Just',15310412,15310531,
Narnia, 42100,'Susan the Gentle',15310412,15310531,
Narnia, 42100,'Lucy the Valiant',15310412,15310531,
Camelot, 15200,'King Arthur',06310310,06861212,
Camelot, 15200,'Sir Lionel',06310310,06861212,
Camelot, 15200,'Sir Bors',06310310,06351212,
Camelot, 15200,'Sir Bors',06400310,06861212,
Camelot, 15200,'Sir Galahad',06310310,06861212,
Camelot, 15200,'Sir Gawain',06310310,06861212,
Camelot, 15200,'Sir Tristram',06310310,06861212,
Camelot, 15200,'Sir Percival',06310310,06861212,
Camelot, 15200,'Sir Lancelot',06700930,06821212,

Step #2 : Connect as the student user

Disconnect and connect as the student user, or reconnect as the student user. The reconnect syntax that protects your password is:

mysql -ustudent -p

Connect to the sampledb database, like so:

mysql> USE sampledb;

Step #3 : Run the script that creates tables and sequences

Copy the following into a create_mysql_kingdom_upload.sql file within a directory of your choice. Then, run it as the student account.

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-- This enables dropping tables with foreign key dependencies.
-- It is specific to the InnoDB Engine.
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 0; 
 
-- Conditionally drop objects.
SELECT 'KINGDOM' AS "Drop Table";
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS KINGDOM;
 
SELECT 'KNIGHT' AS "Drop Table";
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS KNIGHT;
 
SELECT 'KINGDOM_KNIGHT_IMPORT' AS "Drop Table";
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS KINGDOM_KNIGHT_IMPORT;
 
-- Create normalized kingdom table.
SELECT 'KINGDOM' AS "Create Table";
CREATE TABLE kingdom
( kingdom_id    INT UNSIGNED PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT
, kingdom_name  VARCHAR(20)
, population    INT UNSIGNED) ENGINE=INNODB;
 
-- Create normalized knight table.
SELECT 'KNIGHT' AS "Create Table";
CREATE TABLE knight
( knight_id             INT UNSIGNED PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT
, knight_name           VARCHAR(24)
, kingdom_allegiance_id INT UNSIGNED
, allegiance_start_date DATE
, allegiance_end_date   DATE
, CONSTRAINT fk_kingdom FOREIGN KEY (kingdom_allegiance_id)
  REFERENCES kingdom (kingdom_id)) ENGINE=INNODB;
 
-- Create external import table in memory only - disappears after rebooting the mysqld service.
SELECT 'KINGDOM_KNIGHT_IMPORT' AS "Create Table";
CREATE TABLE kingdom_knight_import
( kingdom_name          VARCHAR(20)
, population            INT UNSIGNED
, knight_name           VARCHAR(24)
, allegiance_start_date DATE
, allegiance_end_date   DATE) ENGINE=MEMORY;

Step #4 : Load the data into your target upload table

There a number of things that could go wrong but when you choose LOCAL there generally aren’t any problems. Run the following query from the student account while using the sampledb database, and check whether or not you can access the kingdom_import.csv file.

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LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE 'c:/Data/kingdom_mysql_import.csv'
INTO TABLE kingdom_knight_import
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
ENCLOSED BY '"'
ESCAPED BY '\\'
LINES TERMINATED BY '\r\n';

Step #5 : Create the upload procedure

Copy the following into a create_mysql_upload_procedure.sql file within a directory of your choice. You should note that unlike Oracle’s MERGE statement, this is done with the ON DUPLICATE KEY clause and requires actual values not a source query. This presents few options other than a stored routine, known as a stored procedure. As you can see from the code, there’s a great deal of complexity to the syntax and a much more verbose implementation than Oracle’s equivalent PL/SQL.

Then, run it as the student account. As you look at the structure to achieve this simple thing, the long standing complaint about PL/SQL being a verbose language comes to mind. Clearly, stored procedures are new to MySQL but they’re quite a bit more verbose than PL/SQL.

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-- Conditionally drop the procedure.
SELECT 'UPLOAD_KINGDOM' AS "Drop Procedure";
DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS upload_kingdom;
 
-- Reset the execution delimiter to create a stored program.
DELIMITER $$
 
-- The parentheses after the procedure name must be there or the MODIFIES SQL DATA raises an compile time exception.
CREATE PROCEDURE upload_kingdom() MODIFIES SQL DATA
 
BEGIN
 
  /* Declare local variables. */
  DECLARE lv_kingdom_id            INT UNSIGNED;
  DECLARE lv_kingdom_name          VARCHAR(20);
  DECLARE lv_population            INT UNSIGNED;
  DECLARE lv_knight_id             INT UNSIGNED;
  DECLARE lv_knight_name           VARCHAR(24);
  DECLARE lv_kingdom_allegiance_id INT UNSIGNED;
  DECLARE lv_allegiance_start_date DATE;
  DECLARE lv_allegiance_end_date   DATE;
 
  /* Declare a handler variables. */
  DECLARE duplicate_key INT DEFAULT 0;
  DECLARE foreign_key   INT DEFAULT 0;
  DECLARE fetched       INT DEFAULT 0;
 
  /* Cursors must come after variables and before event handlers. */
 
  /* Declare a SQL cursor with a left join on the natural key. */  
  DECLARE kingdom_cursor CURSOR FOR
    SELECT   DISTINCT
             k.kingdom_id
    ,        kki.kingdom_name
    ,        kki.population
    FROM     kingdom_knight_import kki LEFT JOIN kingdom k
    ON       kki.kingdom_name = k.kingdom_name
    AND      kki.population = k.population; 
 
  /* Declare a SQL cursor with a join on the natural key. */  
  DECLARE knight_cursor CURSOR FOR
    SELECT   kn.knight_id
    ,        kki.knight_name
    ,        k.kingdom_id
    ,        kki.allegiance_start_date AS start_date
    ,        kki.allegiance_end_date AS end_date
    FROM     kingdom_knight_import kki INNER JOIN kingdom k
    ON       kki.kingdom_name = k.kingdom_name
    AND      kki.population = k.population LEFT JOIN knight kn 
    ON       k.kingdom_id = kn.kingdom_allegiance_id
    AND      kki.knight_name = kn.knight_name
    AND      kki.allegiance_start_date = kn.allegiance_start_date
    AND      kki.allegiance_end_date = kn.allegiance_end_date; 
 
  /* Event handlers must always be last in the declaration section. */
 
  /* Declare a duplicate key handler */
  DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR 1062 SET duplicate_key = 1;
  DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR 1216 SET foreign_key = 1;
 
  /* Declare a not found record handler to close a cursor loop. */
  DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR NOT FOUND SET fetched = 1;
 
  /* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- */
 
  /* Start transaction context. */
  START TRANSACTION;
 
  /* Set savepoint. */  
  SAVEPOINT both_or_none;
 
  /* Open a local cursor. */  
  OPEN kingdom_cursor;
  cursor_kingdom: LOOP
 
    FETCH kingdom_cursor
    INTO  lv_kingdom_id
    ,     lv_kingdom_name
    ,     lv_population;
 
    /* Place the catch handler for no more rows found
       immediately after the fetch operation.          */
    IF fetched = 1 THEN LEAVE cursor_kingdom; END IF;
 
    INSERT INTO kingdom
    VALUES
    ( lv_kingdom_id
    , lv_kingdom_name
    , lv_population ) 
    ON DUPLICATE KEY
    UPDATE kingdom_name = lv_kingdom_name;
 
  END LOOP cursor_kingdom;
  CLOSE kingdom_cursor;
 
  /* Reset the continue handler to zero. */
  SET fetched = 0;  
 
  /* Open a local cursor. */  
  OPEN knight_cursor;
  cursor_knight: LOOP
 
    /* Fetch records until they're all read, and a NOT FOUND SET is returned. */  
    FETCH knight_cursor
    INTO  lv_knight_id
    ,     lv_knight_name
    ,     lv_kingdom_allegiance_id
    ,     lv_allegiance_start_date
    ,     lv_allegiance_end_date;
 
    /* Place the catch handler for no more rows found
       immediately after the fetch operation.          */
    IF fetched = 1 THEN LEAVE cursor_knight; END IF;
 
    INSERT INTO knight
    VALUES
    ( lv_knight_id
    , lv_knight_name
    , lv_kingdom_allegiance_id
    , lv_allegiance_start_date
    , lv_allegiance_end_date ) 
    ON DUPLICATE KEY
    UPDATE knight_name = lv_knight_name;
 
  END LOOP cursor_knight;
  CLOSE knight_cursor;
 
  /* Reset the continue handler to zero. */
  SET fetched = 0;  
 
  /* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- */
 
  /* This acts as an exception handling block. */  
  IF duplicate_key = 1 OR foreign_key = 1 THEN
 
    /* This undoes all DML statements to this point in the procedure. */
    ROLLBACK TO SAVEPOINT both_or_none;
 
  ELSE
 
    /* This commits the writes. */
    COMMIT;
 
  END IF;
 
END;
$$
 
-- Reset the delimiter to the default.
DELIMITER ;

Here’s the better option with an embedded query:

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-- Conditionally drop the procedure.
SELECT 'UPLOAD_KINGDOM' AS "Drop Procedure";
DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS upload_kingdom;
 
-- Reset the execution delimiter to create a stored program.
DELIMITER $$
 
-- The parentheses after the procedure name must be there or the MODIFIES SQL DATA raises an compile time exception.
CREATE PROCEDURE upload_kingdom() MODIFIES SQL DATA
 
BEGIN
 
  /* Declare a handler variables. */
  DECLARE duplicate_key INT DEFAULT 0;
  DECLARE foreign_key   INT DEFAULT 0;
 
  /* Declare a duplicate key handler */
  DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR 1062 SET duplicate_key = 1;
  DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR 1216 SET foreign_key = 1;
 
  /* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- */
 
  /* Start transaction context. */
  START TRANSACTION;
 
  /* Set savepoint. */  
  SAVEPOINT both_or_none;
 
  /* Using subqueries update the targets. */  
  INSERT INTO knight
  ( SELECT   kn.knight_id
    ,        kki.knight_name
    ,        k.kingdom_id
    ,        kki.allegiance_start_date AS start_date
    ,        kki.allegiance_end_date AS end_date
    FROM     kingdom_knight_import kki INNER JOIN kingdom k
    ON       kki.kingdom_name = k.kingdom_name
    AND      kki.population = k.population LEFT JOIN knight kn
    ON       k.kingdom_id = kn.kingdom_allegiance_id
    AND      kki.knight_name = kn.knight_name
    AND      kki.allegiance_start_date = kn.allegiance_start_date
    AND      kki.allegiance_end_date = kn.allegiance_end_date )
  ON DUPLICATE KEY
  UPDATE knight_id = kn.knight_id;
 
  INSERT INTO knight
  ( SELECT   kn.knight_id
    ,        kki.knight_name
    ,        k.kingdom_id
    ,        kki.allegiance_start_date AS start_date
    ,        kki.allegiance_end_date AS end_date
    FROM     kingdom_knight_import kki INNER JOIN kingdom k
    ON       kki.kingdom_name = k.kingdom_name
    AND      kki.population = k.population LEFT JOIN knight kn
    ON       k.kingdom_id = kn.kingdom_allegiance_id
    AND      kki.knight_name = kn.knight_name
    AND      kki.allegiance_start_date = kn.allegiance_start_date
    AND      kki.allegiance_end_date = kn.allegiance_end_date )
  ON DUPLICATE KEY
  UPDATE knight_id = kn.knight_id;
 
  /* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- */
 
  /* This acts as an exception handling block. */  
  IF duplicate_key = 1 OR foreign_key = 1 THEN
 
    /* This undoes all DML statements to this point in the procedure. */
    ROLLBACK TO SAVEPOINT both_or_none;
 
  ELSE
 
    /* This commits the writes. */
    COMMIT;
 
  END IF;
 
END;
$$
 
-- Reset the delimiter to the default.
DELIMITER ;

Step #6 : Run the upload procedure

You can run the file by calling the stored procedure built by the script. The procedure ensures that records are inserted or updated into their respective tables.

CALL upload_kingdom;

Step #7 : Test the results of the upload procedure

You can test whether or not it worked by running the following queries.

-- Check the kingdom table.
SELECT * FROM kingdom;
SELECT * FROM knight;

It should display the following information:

+------------+--------------+------------+
| kingdom_id | kingdom_name | population |
+------------+--------------+------------+
|          1 | Narnia       |      77600 |
|          2 | Narnia       |      42100 |
|          3 | Camelot      |      15200 |
+------------+--------------+------------+
 
+-----------+-------------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+---------------------+
| knight_id | knight_name             | kingdom_allegiance_id | allegiance_start_date | allegiance_end_date |
+-----------+-------------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+---------------------+
|         1 | 'Peter the Magnificent' |                     1 | 1272-03-20            | 1292-06-09          |
|         2 | 'Edmund the Just'       |                     1 | 1272-03-20            | 1292-06-09          |
|         3 | 'Susan the Gentle'      |                     1 | 1272-03-20            | 1292-06-09          |
|         4 | 'Lucy the Valiant'      |                     1 | 1272-03-20            | 1292-06-09          |
|         5 | 'Peter the Magnificent' |                     2 | 1531-04-12            | 1531-05-31          |
|         6 | 'Edmund the Just'       |                     2 | 1531-04-12            | 1531-05-31          |
|         7 | 'Susan the Gentle'      |                     2 | 1531-04-12            | 1531-05-31          |
|         8 | 'Lucy the Valiant'      |                     2 | 1531-04-12            | 1531-05-31          |
|         9 | 'King Arthur'           |                     3 | 0631-03-10            | 0686-12-12          |
|        10 | 'Sir Lionel'            |                     3 | 0631-03-10            | 0686-12-12          |
|        11 | 'Sir Bors'              |                     3 | 0631-03-10            | 0635-12-12          |
|        12 | 'Sir Bors'              |                     3 | 0640-03-10            | 0686-12-12          |
|        13 | 'Sir Galahad'           |                     3 | 0631-03-10            | 0686-12-12          |
|        14 | 'Sir Gawain'            |                     3 | 0631-03-10            | 0686-12-12          |
|        15 | 'Sir Tristram'          |                     3 | 0631-03-10            | 0686-12-12          |
|        16 | 'Sir Percival'          |                     3 | 0631-03-10            | 0686-12-12          |
|        17 | 'Sir Lancelot'          |                     3 | 0670-09-30            | 0682-12-12          |
+-----------+-------------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+---------------------+

You can rerun the procedure to check that it doesn’t alter any information, then you could add a new knight to test the insertion portion.

Written by maclochlainn

February 24th, 2010 at 9:15 am

PHP Binding a Wildcard

with 8 comments

Somebody asked me about how you bind a parameter in mysqli when a multiple character wildcard needs to be next to the variable value. They’d found that it worked when creating a SQL statement by concatenation (string gluing), like this:

$sql = "SELECT item_title FROM item WHERE item_title LIKE '%".$title."%'";

However, they tried to bind the variable following the same pattern, and found that it failed. They used the following type of syntax:

$sql = "SELECT item_title FROM item WHERE item_title LIKE '%?%'";

It raised the following error:

Warning: mysqli_stmt_bind_param() [function.mysqli-stmt-bind-param]: Number of variables doesn't match number of parameters in prepared statement in program_name on line #

The reason is the parser, it expects variables to be independent tokens in the SQL string. You can’t bind a string into the shell of an apostrophe delimited string. You could naturally, make an assignment to the local PHP variable before binding it to the variable, like this:

$title = '%'.$title.'%';

It’s actually a better idea to concatenate the multiple character wildcard operator inside the SQL statement. The correct syntax requires that you use the CONCAT() function. You could reset to use piped concatenation but generally you should avoid that on the MySQL platform (see this post for an explanation of SQL concatenation on Oracle, MySQL, and SQL Server).

This is the required statement when using a MySQL database:

$sql = "SELECT item_title FROM item WHERE item_title LIKE CONCAT('%',?,'%')";

Written by maclochlainn

February 21st, 2010 at 1:13 am

Posted in LAMP,MAMP,MySQL,PHP

Decoding 1005 on MySQL

with 17 comments

If you’re using referential integrity on MySQL, you can easily run into this error with the InnoDB engine. It frequently seems to occur with an ALTER TABLE statement. It can mean many things but typically it means the data types don’t match between the foreign key and primary key column. Likewise, it can mean one of the column data types disagrees in a multiple-column foreign to multiple-column primary key constraint.

The error by itself isn’t very handy. This is a sample:

ERROR 1005 (HY000): Can't create table 'sampledb.#sql-4a0_2' (errno: 150)

You can try SHOW WARNINGS but you’ll discover more about the error by running the following command as the root superuser:

mysql> SHOW engine innodb STATUS;

It returns a dump of the InnoDB’s activity. You can see it by unfolding the complete log, if you’re interested in the details. The significant part of the log to solve this type of problem is:

------------------------
LATEST FOREIGN KEY ERROR
------------------------
100130 17:16:57 Error IN FOREIGN KEY CONSTRAINT OF TABLE sampledb/#sql-4a0_2:
FOREIGN KEY(member_type)
REFERENCES common_lookup(common_lookup_id):
Cannot find an INDEX IN the referenced TABLE WHERE the
referenced COLUMNS appear AS the FIRST COLUMNS, OR COLUMN types
IN the TABLE AND the referenced TABLE do NOT MATCH FOR CONSTRAINT.

While this is more information, it isn’t necessarily enough to solve the problem when you’re new to MySQL. The first place you should look is whether the data types agree between the foreign key and primary key columns.

The most common variation that I’ve run into is where the primary key column uses a int unsigned data type and the foreign key column uses an int data type. It’s quite nice that the InnoDB Engine stops this cold. Naturally, you fix it by changing the foreign key data type to match the int unsigned data type.

Written by maclochlainn

January 30th, 2010 at 6:58 pm

Posted in InnoDB,MySQL,sql

The class, they survived …

with 3 comments

The rumor is that my database is hard, but I’ve always hoped it was fun and laid the foundation of success for my students. As I walked into class to give them their final exam, they had their jackets on, which isn’t uncommon for Rexburg, Idaho in December. However, that’s normal outside but unusual in the heated classroom. Then, they all took their jackets off to show their new t-shirts.

They thought it would be fun to post on the blog, so here it is. The shirts says:

SELECT   i.survived
FROM     michael_mclaughlin i
WHERE    class= CIT 320;

It’s unfortunate that they missed the enclosing quote marks around the string literal. 😉 It should be like this:

SELECT   i.survived
FROM     michael_mclaughlin i
WHERE    i.class= 'CIT 320';

Here’s to a great group of students who know how to read, write, and think SQL. Any openings out there for internships, please drop me a note.

Happy holidays!

Written by maclochlainn

December 16th, 2009 at 4:42 pm

Lobs with mysqli in PHP 5.3

without comments

We got away with a bit of lazy PHP, at least through PHP 5.29. Especially when we worked with LOB columns. All that is at an end with PHP 5.3. You must now call the mysqli_stmt_store_results($stmt); function (line number 76 in the program snippet below from source) between the execute and bind result phrases.

The function transfers a result set from a prepared statement. You need to use it when performing a SELECT, SHOW, DESCRIBE, or EXPLAIN statement that you will call by the mysqli_stmt_fetch($stmt); function.

Without using it, you may only see part of a MEDIUMTEXT column displayed. Likewise, an image from a MEDIUMBLOB column won’t be displayed at all unless you store their results too, by using the same function call.

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// Prepare statement.
if (mysqli_stmt_prepare($stmt,$sql)) {
  mysqli_stmt_bind_param($stmt,"i",$id);
 
  // Execute it and print success or failure message.
  if (mysqli_stmt_execute($stmt)) {
 
    // Store result, which eliminates memory cutting off lob streams.
    mysqli_stmt_store_result($stmt);
 
    // Bind result to local variable.
    mysqli_stmt_bind_result($stmt, $desc);
 
    // Read result.
    mysqli_stmt_fetch($stmt);
 
    // Print result.
    print $desc;
  }
}

Also, that oldie ereg() function is deprecated for preg_match() in PHP 5.3 and removed in PHP 6. Don’t forget to make those changes if you were lazy like me before updating to PHP 5.3.

Written by maclochlainn

December 4th, 2009 at 11:59 pm

Posted in MySQL,PHP