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MySQL Transaction Scope

The idea of ACID transactions are a basic feature of SQL’s individual Data Manipulation Language (DML) commands, like the INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements. Transactions across two or more tables are a natural extension of ACID compliance features provided by DML commands. However, they require a structured programming approach, like a store procedure or like API implemented in an imperative language.

Surprisingly, transaction management wasn’t covered well in Alan Beaulieu’s Learning SQL because he only provided pseudo code logic. While I thought troubleshoot some broken MySQL SQL/PSM logic would be a good learning experience for students, it wasn’t. So, I wrote this sample code to show how to achieve an all or nothing transaction across four tables.

The code for this example on transaction management lets you perform the important tasks necessary to effect transaction management:

You must disable autocommit in the scope of the session.
You must use an imperative programming language like SQL/PSM or Python, et cetera.
You must identify an error thrown in a series of DML transactions, rollback all completed work, and exit the scope of the program unit.

This SQL defines the four tables:

/* Drop and create four tables. */
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS one, two, three, four;
CREATE TABLE one   ( id int primary key auto_increment, msg varchar(10));
CREATE TABLE two   ( id int primary key auto_increment, msg varchar(10));
CREATE TABLE three ( id int primary key auto_increment, msg varchar(10));
CREATE TABLE four  ( id int primary key auto_increment, msg varchar(10));

Unfortunately, there’s no way to simply transaction management from the MySQL Command-Line Interface (CLI) because you need to build the logic that manages success and failure. It requires that you create a procedure using MySQL’s SQL/PSM (Persistent Stored Module) or another imperative programming language. You might think why can’t you just write an anonymous block program, like you can do in other stored procedural languages. The answer is simple. You can’t write anonymous blocks in MySQL’s SQL/PSM because they adhere to ANSI SQL-2003 (or more accurately ISO/IEC 9075-4:2003).

The following code block does:

Conditionally drops the locking() procedure.
Sets the default semicolon (;) delimiter to a double-dollar ($$), which lets you use the semicolon as statement and block terminators.
Declares a locking() procedure with the following:
- Sets a parameter list with four IN-mode parameters.
- Declares an EXIT handler that undoes any writes before an error in a sequence of DDL commands, like the INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statements. The EXIT handler then aborts completion of the rest of the procedure. (MySQL 13.6.7.2 Declare … Handler Statement)
- Disables autocommit in the scope of the session.
- Starts a transaction context and inserts data into four tables as a transaction. The continue handler picks up processing when one of the INSERT statements fails with a 1406 error code. The 1406 error code represents an error that occurs because the data is too long for a column’s width.
- When all elements of the procedure complete, you commit the work.
Sets the double-dollar delimiter back to the default semicolon.

/* Conditionally drop procedure. */
DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS locking;
 
/* Set delimiter to $$ to allow ; inside the procedure. */
DELIMITER $$
 
/* Create a transaction procedure. */
CREATE PROCEDURE locking(IN pv_one   varchar(10)
                        ,IN pv_two   varchar(10)
                        ,IN pv_three varchar(10)
                        ,IN pv_four  varchar(10))
  BEGIN
    /* Declare an EXIT Handler when a string is too long
       for a column. Undo all prior writes with a ROLLBACK
       statement. */
    DECLARE EXIT HANDLER FOR 1406 
      BEGIN
        ROLLBACK;
      END;
 
    /* Disable autocommit. */
    SET AUTOCOMMIT=0;
 
    /* Start transaction scope. */	   
    START TRANSACTION;
 
    /* A series of INSERT statement. */
    INSERT INTO one   (msg) VALUES (pv_one);
    INSERT INTO two   (msg) VALUES (pv_two);
    INSERT INTO three (msg) VALUES (pv_three);
    INSERT INTO four  (msg) VALUES (pv_four);
 
    /* Commit transaction set. */
    COMMIT;
  END;
$$ 
 
/* Reset delimiter to ; for SQL statements. */
DELIMITER ;

The next block tests the locking() procedure. The first and third calls are successful but the second one fails because the third parameter is too long for the msg column in the three table. The error triggers the EXIT handler in the locking() procedure.

/* Call locking procedure. */
CALL locking('Donald','Goofy','Mickey','Pluto');
CALL locking('Squirrel','Chipmunk','Monkey business','Raccoon');
CALL locking('Curly','Larry','Moe','Shemp');

The query block below:

/* Select from tables, which should be empty. */
SELECT * FROM one;
SELECT * FROM two;
SELECT * FROM three;
SELECT * FROM four;

Returns the following, which shows only the first and third test cases succeed:

+----+--------+
| id | msg    |
+----+--------+
|  1 | Donald |
|  2 | Curly  |
+----+--------+
2 rows in set (0.01 sec)
 
+----+-------+
| id | msg   |
+----+-------+
|  1 | Goofy |
|  2 | Larry |
+----+-------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
 
+----+--------+
| id | msg    |
+----+--------+
|  1 | Mickey |
|  2 | Moe    |
+----+--------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
 
+----+-------+
| id | msg   |
+----+-------+
|  1 | Pluto |
|  2 | Shemp |
+----+-------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

As always, I hope this helps those trying to write transactions across multiple tables.

Written by maclochlainn

March 16th, 2021 at 10:01 am

Posted in LAMP,Linux,Mac,MySQL,MySQL 8,MySQL Client,MySQL Shell,sql,Unix,Windows 10

Tagged with MySQL DBA, MySQL Developer

PL/SQL Inheritance Failure

without comments

PL/SQL is a great programming language as far as it goes but it lacks true type inheritance for its collections. While you can create an object type and subtype, you can’t work with collections of those types the same way. PL/SQL object type inheritance, unlike the Java class hierarchy and parallel array class hierarchy, only supports a class hierarchy. Effectively, that means:

You can pass a subtype as a call parameter, or argument, to a parent data type in a function, procedure, or method signature, but
You can’t pass a collection of a subtype as a call parameter, or argument, to a collection of parent type in a function, procedure, or method signature.

The limitation occurs because collections have their own data type, which is fixed when you create them. Worse yet, because Oracle has never seen fit to fix their two underlying code trees (23 years and counting since Oracle 8i), you have two types of collections using two distinct C/C++ libraries. You define collections of Attribute Data Types (ATDs) when you create a collection of a standard scalar data type, like NUMBER, VARCHAR2, or DATE. You define collection of User-Defined Data Types (UTDs) when you create a collection of a SQL UDT or PL/SQL-only RECORD data type. The former uses one C/C++ library and the latter another.

Now, Oracle even make the differences between Java and PL/SQL more complex because it treats collections known as tables, really lists in most programming languages, differently than varrays, or arrays. You create a TABLE collection, or list, when you create a table of a scalar or UDT data type. There are two options when you create these object types, and they are:

You create an empty collection with a no element constructor, which means you’ll need to allocate memory before assigning element values later in your program.
You create a populated collection with a comma-delimited list of elements.

Both approaches give you a list of elements with a densely populated index. A “densely populated index” is Oracle’s jargon for how they characterize a 1-based sequence of integers without any gaps (e.g., 1, 2, 3, …). The initial construction works the same way whether you create a TABLE or VARRAY collection type. Unfortunately, after you’ve built the collection behaviors change. If you use Oracle’s Collection API to delete one or more items from a TABLE collection type, you create gaps in the index’s sequence of values. That means you must use special logic to navigate across a TABLE collection type to ensure it doesn’t fail when encountering a gap in the numeric sequence.

For example, here’s a FOR-LOOP without the logic to vouchsafe a uninterrupted set of sequence values incrementing by a counter of 1 element at a time:

DECLARE
  /* Create a local table collection. */
  TYPE list IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(10);
 
  /* Statically allocate memory and assign values
     to for elements. */
  lv_list  LIST := list('Moe','Shemp','Larry','Curly');
BEGIN
  /* Remove the second element, Shemp, from the 
     collection of variable length strings. */
  lv_list.DELETE(2);
 
  /* Loop through the target with a for loop, which
     depends on densely populated index values. */
  FOR i IN 1..lv_list.COUNT LOOP
    dbms_output.put_line('['||lv_list(i)||']');
  END LOOP;
END;
/

The program fails when it tries to read the second element of the table collection, which was previously removed. It raises the following error message after print the first element of the table collection:

[Moe]
DECLARE
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01403: no data found
ORA-06512: at line 16

Conveniently, Oracle’s Collection API provides an EXISTS method that we can use to check for the presence of an index’s value. Modifying line 16 by wrapping it in an IF-statement fixes one problem but identifies another:

  FOR i IN 1..lv_list.COUNT LOOP
    IF lv_list.EXISTS(i) THEN
      dbms_output.put_line('['||lv_list(i)||']');
    END IF;
  END LOOP;

The program no longer fails on a missing index value, or index gap, but it returns fewer lines of output than you might expect.

That’s because the Oracle Collection API’s COUNT method returns the number of elements currently allocated in memory not the number of original elements. We learn that when we deleted the second element, Oracle deleted the memory allocated for it as well. This is the type of behavior you might expect for a singly linked list. It prints:

[Moe]
[Larry]

One more change is required to count past and to the highest index value. One line 15, change the COUNT method call to the LAST method call, which returns the highest index value.

  FOR i IN 1..lv_list.LAST LOOP
    IF lv_list.EXISTS(i) THEN
      dbms_output.put_line('['||lv_list(i)||']');
    END IF;
  END LOOP;

It now prints the three stooges we would expect to see:

[Moe]
[Larry]
[Curly]

Realistically, a FOR-LOOP is not the best control structure for a collection. You should use a WHILE-LOOP and treat the incrementing value as an iterator rather than sequence index value. An iterator doesn’t worry about gaps in the sequence, it simply moves to the next element in the singly linked list. Here’s an example that uses the iterator approach with a WHILE-LOOP:

DECLARE
  /* Create a local table collection. */
  TYPE list IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(10);
 
  /* Statically allocate memory and assign values
     to for elements. */
  lv_list  LIST := list('Moe','Shemp','Larry','Curly');
 
  /* Declare a current index variable. */
  CURRENT  NUMBER;
BEGIN
  /* Remove the second element, Shemp, from the 
     collection of variable length strings. */
  lv_list.DELETE(2);
 
  /* Loop through the target with a while loop, which
     doesn't depend on densely populated index values
     by setting the starting index value and increment
     as if with an iterator. */
  CURRENT := lv_list.FIRST;
  WHILE NOT (CURRENT > lv_list.LAST) LOOP
    dbms_output.put_line('['||lv_list(CURRENT)||']');
    CURRENT := lv_list.NEXT(CURRENT);
  END LOOP;
END;
/

The iterator approach prints the elements as:

[Moe]
[Larry]
[Curly]

You can reverse the process with the following changes to lines 20-24:

  CURRENT := lv_list.LAST;
  WHILE NOT (CURRENT < lv_list.FIRST) LOOP
    dbms_output.put_line('['||lv_list(CURRENT)||']');
    CURRENT := lv_list.PRIOR(CURRENT);
  END LOOP;

It prints the list backwards:

[Curly]
[Larry]
[Moe]

After covering the issues with sparsely populated, those with gaps in the sequence of indexes values, table collections, let’s examine how you must work around PL/SQL’s lack of a parallel array class hierarchy. The solution lies in combining two programming concepts:

A function to pack the sparsely populated table collection into a densely populated one, and
A package with overloaded functions that pack different table collections.

To develop the test case, let’s use an ADT collection because it’s the simplest to work with. The following creates a table collection of a thirty character long scalar string:

1
2
3

CREATE OR REPLACE
  TYPE list IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(30);
/

The following pack function takes a table collection of the thirty character long scalar string, evaluates the string for missing elements, and packs the existing elements into a densely populated list:

CREATE OR REPLACE
  FUNCTION pack
  ( pv_list  LIST ) RETURN list IS
 
  /* Declare a new list. */
  lv_new  LIST  := list();
BEGIN
  /* Read, check, and pack an old list into a new one. */
  FOR i IN 1..pv_list.LAST LOOP
    IF pv_list.EXISTS(i) THEN
      lv_new.EXTEND;
      lv_new(lv_new.COUNT) := pv_list(i);
    END IF;
  END LOOP;
  RETURN lv_new;
END;
/

This anonymous block tests the pack function:

DECLARE
  /* Declare a list value. */
  lv_test  LIST := list('Moe','Shemp','Larry','Curly');
BEGIN
  /* Remove one element in the middle. */
  lv_test.DELETE(2);
 
  /* Pack the list of elements into a sequence of values. */
  lv_test := pack(lv_test);
 
  /* Print the list of elements from the packed list. */
  FOR i IN 1..lv_test.COUNT LOOP
    dbms_output.put_line('['||lv_test(i)||']');
  END LOOP;
END;
/

It prints the expected three string values:

[Moe]
[Larry]
[Curly]

Now, let’s expand the example to build an overloaded package. The first step requires building a base_t object type and a table collection of the object type, like:

CREATE OR REPLACE
  TYPE base_t IS OBJECT
  ( oid  NUMBER )
  INSTANTIABLE NOT FINAL;
/
 
CREATE OR REPLACE
  TYPE base_list IS TABLE OF base_t;
/

Next, you create a book_t subtype of the base_t object type and a book_list table collection of the book_t subtype, like:

CREATE OR REPLACE
  TYPE book_t UNDER base_t
  ( title  VARCHAR2(30)
  , COST   NUMBER);
/
 
CREATE OR REPLACE
  TYPE book_list IS TABLE OF book_t;
/

We can test the base_t and book_t default constructors with the following SQL*Plus formatting and SQL query:

COL oid   FORMAT 999
COL title FORMAT A20
COL COST  FORMAT 99.99
SELECT *
FROM   TABLE(book_list(book_t(1,'Neuromancer',15.30)
                      ,book_t(2,'Count Zero',7.99)
                      ,book_t(3,'Mona Lisa Overdrive',7.99)
                      ,book_t(4,'Burning Chrome',8.89)));

It prints the following output:

 OID TITLE                  COST
---- -------------------- ------
   1 Neuromancer           15.30
   2 Count Zero             7.99
   3 Mona Lisa Overdrive    7.99
   4 Burning Chrome         8.89

The following is an overloaded package specification:

CREATE OR REPLACE
  PACKAGE packer IS
 
  /* A simple ADT list of strings. */
  FUNCTION pack
  ( pv_list  LIST ) RETURN list;
 
  /* A UDT list of base objects. */
  FUNCTION pack
  ( pv_list  BASE_LIST ) RETURN base_list;
 
  /* A UDT list of subtype objects. */
  FUNCTION pack
  ( pv_list  BOOK_LIST ) RETURN book_list;
 
END;
/

After you create the package specification, you need to provide the implementation. This is typical in any programming language that supports Interface Description Language (IDL). A package body provides the implementation for the package specification. The package body follows:

CREATE OR REPLACE
  PACKAGE BODY packer IS
 
  /* A simple ADT list of strings. */
  FUNCTION pack
  ( pv_list  LIST ) RETURN list IS
 
    /* Declare a new list. */
    lv_new  LIST  := list();
  BEGIN
    /* Read, check, and pack an old list into a new one. */
    FOR i IN 1..pv_list.LAST LOOP
      IF pv_list.EXISTS(i) THEN
        lv_new.EXTEND;
        lv_new(lv_new.COUNT) := pv_list(i);
      END IF;
    END LOOP;
    RETURN lv_new;
  END pack;
 
  /* A simple ADT list of strings. */
  FUNCTION pack
  ( pv_list  BASE_LIST ) RETURN base_list IS
 
    /* Declare a new list. */
    lv_new  BASE_LIST  := base_list();
  BEGIN
    /* Read, check, and pack an old list into a new one. */
    FOR i IN 1..pv_list.LAST LOOP
      IF pv_list.EXISTS(i) THEN
        lv_new.EXTEND;
        lv_new(lv_new.COUNT) := pv_list(i);
      END IF;
    END LOOP;
    RETURN lv_new;
  END pack;
 
  /* A simple ADT list of strings. */
  FUNCTION pack
  ( pv_list  BOOK_LIST ) RETURN book_list IS
 
    /* Declare a new list. */
    lv_new  BOOK_LIST  := book_list();
  BEGIN
    /* Read, check, and pack an old list into a new one. */
    FOR i IN 1..pv_list.LAST LOOP
      IF pv_list.EXISTS(i) THEN
        lv_new.EXTEND;
        lv_new(lv_new.COUNT) := pv_list(i);
      END IF;
    END LOOP;
    RETURN lv_new;
  END pack;
 
END packer;
/

The test case for the base_list object type is:

DECLARE
  lv_test  BASE_LIST :=
    base_list(base_t(1),base_t(2)
             ,base_t(3),base_t(4));
BEGIN
  /* Remove one element in the middle. */
  lv_test.DELETE(2);
 
  /* Pack the list of elements into a sequence of values. */
  lv_test := packer.pack(lv_test);
 
  /* Print the list of elements from the packed list. */
  FOR i IN 1..lv_test.LAST LOOP
    dbms_output.put_line('['||lv_test(i).oid||']');
  END LOOP;
END;
/

It prints the following output:

[1]
[3]
[4]

The test case for the book_list object type is:

DECLARE
  lv_test  BOOK_LIST := 
    book_list(book_t(1,'Neuromancer',15.30)
             ,book_t(2,'Count Zero',7.99)
             ,book_t(3,'Mona Lisa Overdrive',7.99)
             ,book_t(4,'Burning Chrome',8.89));
BEGIN
  /* Remove one element in the middle. */
  lv_test.DELETE(2);
 
  /* Pack the list of elements into a sequence of values. */
  lv_test := packer.pack(lv_test);
 
  /* Print the list of elements from the packed list. */
  FOR i IN 1..lv_test.LAST LOOP
    dbms_output.put_line( '['||lv_test(i).oid||']'
                        ||'['||lv_test(i).title||']'
                        ||'['||lv_test(i).COST||']');
  END LOOP;
END;
/

It prints the following output:

[1][Neuromancer][15.3]
[3][Mona Lisa Overdrive][7.99]
[4][Burning Chrome][8.89]

In conclusion, you would not have to write overloaded methods for every list if PL/SQL supported class hierarchy and parallel array class hierarchy like Java. Unfortunately, it doesn’t and likely won’t in the future. You can pack table collections as a safety measure when they’re passed as parameters to other functions, procedures, or methods with the code above.

As always, I hope this helps those looking for a solution.

Written by maclochlainn

February 1st, 2021 at 12:08 am

Posted in Apex,Java,Linux,Oracle,Oracle 11g,Oracle 12c,Oracle 18c,pl/sql,sql,Unix,Windows 10,Windows OS

Tagged with Oracle DBA, Oracle Developer

PL/SQL Coupled Loops

without comments

The purpose of this example shows you how to navigate a list with a sparsely populated index. This can occur when one element has been removed after the list was initialized. Unlike Oracle’s VARRAY (array), removing an element from a TABLE or list does not re-index the elements of the list.

This example also shows you how to coupled lists. The outer loop increments, notwithstanding the gap in index values, while the inner loop decrements. The upper range of the inner loop is set by the index value of the outer loop.

The example program uses an abbreviated version of the Twelve Days of Christmas, and I’ve tried to put teaching notes throughout the example file.

DECLARE
  /* Create a single column collection that is a list strings
     less than 8 characters in length and another of strings
     less than 20 characters in length. */
  TYPE DAY   IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(8);
  TYPE verse IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(20);
 
  /* Create variables that use the user-defined types:
  || =================================================
  ||  1. We give the variable a name of lv_day and lv_verse.
  ||  2. We assign a user-defined ADT (Attribute Data Type) collection.
  ||  3. We assign a list of value to the constructor of the list, which
  ||     allocates memory for each item in the comma-delimited list of
  ||     string.
  */
  lv_day   DAY   := DAY('first','second','third','fourth','fifth');
  lv_verse VERSE := verse('Partridge','Turtle Doves','French Hen'
                         ,'Calling Birds','Gold Rings');
 
BEGIN
  /*
  ||  Remove an element from each of the two lists, which makes the two
  ||  lists sparsely indexed. A sparsely indexed list has gaps in the
  ||  sequential index of the list.
  */
 
  lv_day.DELETE(3);
 
  /*
  ||   Loop through the list of days:
  ||  ===================================================j
  ||   1. A list created by a comma-delimited list is densely populated,
  ||      which means it has no gaps in the sequence of indexes.
  ||   2. A list created by any means that is subsequently accessed
  ||      and has one or more items removed is sparsely populated,
  ||      which means it may have gaps in the sequence of indexes.
  ||   3. A FOR loop anticipates densely populated indexes and fails
  ||      when trying to read a missing index, which is why you should
  ||      use an IF statement to check for the element of a list before
  ||      accessing it.
  ||   4. A COUNT method returns the number of elements allocated memory
  ||      in a list of values and the LAST method returns the highest
  ||      index value. The index value is alway an integer for user-defined
  ||      ADT (Attribute Data Type) collections, but may be a string for
  ||      an associative array or a PL/SQL list indexed by a string.
  ||   5. Removing an element from a list does not change the other
  ||      index values but does if you create an array (or varray), which
  ||      means COUNT OR LAST may cause the same type of error for a list
  ||      with a missing element.
  */
 
  FOR i IN 1..lv_day.LAST LOOP
 
    /*
    ||  Verify the index is valid.
    || ====================================================
    ||  You check whether the element is present in the
    ||  list.
    */
 
    IF lv_day.EXISTS(i) THEN
 
      /* Print the beginning of the stanza. */
      dbms_output.put_line('On the ['||lv_day(i)||'] of Christmas ...');
 
      /* Print the song. */
      FOR j IN REVERSE 1..i LOOP
        /* Check if the day exists. */
        IF lv_verse.EXISTS(j) THEN
          /* All but first and last verses. */
          IF j > 1 THEN
            dbms_output.put_line('-   ['||lv_verse(j)||']');
          /* The last verse. */
          ELSIF i = j THEN
            dbms_output.put_line('- A ['||lv_verse(j)||']'||CHR(10));
          /* Last verse. */
          ELSE
            dbms_output.put_line('and a ['||lv_verse(j)||']'||CHR(10));
          END IF;
        END IF;
      END LOOP;
    ELSE
      CONTINUE;
    END IF;
  END LOOP;
END;
/

DECLARE /* Create a single column collection that is a list strings less than 8 characters in length and another of strings less than 20 characters in length. */ TYPE day IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(8); TYPE verse IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(20); /* Create variables that use the user-defined types: || ================================================= || 1. We give the variable a name of lv_day and lv_verse. || 2. We assign a user-defined ADT (Attribute Data Type) collection. || 3. We assign a list of value to the constructor of the list, which || allocates memory for each item in the comma-delimited list of || string. */ lv_day DAY := day('first','second','third','fourth','fifth'); lv_verse VERSE := verse('Partridge','Turtle Doves','French Hen' ,'Calling Birds','Gold Rings'); BEGIN /* || Remove an element from each of the two lists, which makes the two || lists sparsely indexed. A sparsely indexed list has gaps in the || sequential index of the list. */ lv_day.DELETE(3); /* || Loop through the list of days: || ===================================================j || 1. A list created by a comma-delimited list is densely populated, || which means it has no gaps in the sequence of indexes. || 2. A list created by any means that is subsequently accessed || and has one or more items removed is sparsely populated, || which means it may have gaps in the sequence of indexes. || 3. A FOR loop anticipates densely populated indexes and fails || when trying to read a missing index, which is why you should || use an IF statement to check for the element of a list before || accessing it. || 4. A COUNT method returns the number of elements allocated memory || in a list of values and the LAST method returns the highest || index value. The index value is alway an integer for user-defined || ADT (Attribute Data Type) collections, but may be a string for || an associative array or a PL/SQL list indexed by a string. || 5. Removing an element from a list does not change the other || index values but does if you create an array (or varray), which || means COUNT OR LAST may cause the same type of error for a list || with a missing element. */ FOR i IN 1..lv_day.LAST LOOP /* || Verify the index is valid. || ==================================================== || You check whether the element is present in the || list. */ IF lv_day.EXISTS(i) THEN /* Print the beginning of the stanza. */ dbms_output.put_line('On the ['||lv_day(i)||'] of Christmas ...'); /* Print the song. */ FOR j IN REVERSE 1..i LOOP /* Check if the day exists. */ IF lv_verse.EXISTS(j) THEN /* All but first and last verses. */ IF j > 1 THEN dbms_output.put_line('- ['||lv_verse(j)||']'); /* The last verse. */ ELSIF i = j THEN dbms_output.put_line('- A ['||lv_verse(j)||']'||CHR(10)); /* Last verse. */ ELSE dbms_output.put_line('and a ['||lv_verse(j)||']'||CHR(10)); END IF; END IF; END LOOP; ELSE CONTINUE; END IF; END LOOP; END; /

As always, I hope it helps you solve problems in the real world.

Written by maclochlainn

January 27th, 2021 at 9:09 pm

Posted in Linux,Oracle,Oracle 18c,pl/sql,sql,Windows 10

Tagged with Oracle Developer

MySQL Join Tutorial

without comments

Some believe the most important part of SQL is the ability to query data. Queries typically retrieve data by joining many tables together into useful result sets. This tutorial takes the position that visibility into the data helps those new to SQL understand how joins work. To that end, the queries use Common Tabular Expressions (CTEs) instead of tables.

Default behavior of a JOIN without a qualifying descriptor is not simple because it may return:

A CROSS JOIN (or Cartesian Product) when there is no ON or USING subclause, or
An INNER JOIN when you use an ON or USING subclause.

The following query uses JOIN without a qualifier or an ON or USING subclause. It also uses two copies of the single CTE, which is more or less a derived table and the result of a subquery held in memory. This demonstrates the key reason for table aliases. That key reason is you can put two copies of the same table in memory under different identifiers or labels.

WITH alpha AS
 (SELECT 'A' AS letter, 130 AS amount
  UNION
  SELECT 'B' AS letter, 150 AS amount
  UNION
  SELECT 'C' AS letter, 321 AS amount)
SELECT * FROM alpha a JOIN alpha b;

It returns a Cartesian product:

+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| letter | amount | letter | amount |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| A      |    130 | A      |    130 |
| B      |    150 | A      |    130 |
| C      |    321 | A      |    130 |
| A      |    130 | B      |    150 |
| B      |    150 | B      |    150 |
| C      |    321 | B      |    150 |
| A      |    130 | C      |    321 |
| B      |    150 | C      |    321 |
| C      |    321 | C      |    321 |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+
9 rows in set (0.00 sec)

By adding an ON clause to line 8, the default JOIN keyword returns an INNER JOIN result.

WITH alpha AS
 (SELECT 'A' AS letter, 130 AS amount
  UNION
  SELECT 'B' AS letter, 150 AS amount
  UNION
  SELECT 'C' AS letter, 321 AS amount)
SELECT * FROM alpha a JOIN alpha b
ON a.letter = b.letter;

It displays results, like:

+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| letter | amount | letter | amount |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| A      |    130 | A      |    130 |
| B      |    150 | B      |    150 |
| C      |    321 | C      |    321 |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

The next example uses two CTEs. One uses letters 'A', 'B', 'C', and D and the other uses letters 'A', 'B', 'C', and 'E'. The letter D only exists in the alpha derived table and the letter 'E' only exists in the beta derived table. The amount column values differ for their respective letters in the two CTE tables.

The basic query below the comma delimited CTEs joins the alpha and beta derived tables with an INNER JOIN using an ON clause based on the letter column values found in both alpha and beta CTEs.

WITH alpha AS
 (SELECT 'A' AS letter, 130 AS amount
  UNION
  SELECT 'B' AS letter, 150 AS amount
  UNION
  SELECT 'C' AS letter, 321 AS amount
  UNION
  SELECT 'D' AS letter, 783 AS amount)
, beta AS
 (SELECT 'A' AS letter, 387 AS amount
  UNION
  SELECT 'B' AS letter, 268 AS amount
  UNION
  SELECT 'C' AS letter, 532 AS amount
  UNION
  SELECT 'E' AS letter, 391 AS amount)
SELECT * FROM alpha a INNER JOIN beta b
ON a.letter = b.letter;

The INNER JOIN returns only those rows in alpha and beta CTEs where the letter column values match:

+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| letter | amount | letter | amount |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| A      |    130 | A      |    387 |
| B      |    150 | B      |    268 |
| C      |    321 | C      |    532 |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+
3 rows in set (0.01 sec)

If you change line 17 from an INNER JOIN to a LEFT JOIN, you return all the rows from the alpha CTE and only those rows from the beta CTE that have a matching letter column value. The new line 17 for a LEFT JOIN is:

17	SELECT * FROM alpha a LEFT JOIN beta b

It returns the three matching rows plus the one non-matching row from the alpha CTE that is on the left side of the LEFT JOIN operator. You should note that that a left outer join puts null values into the beta CTE columns where there is no matching row for the 'D' letter found in the alpha CTE.

The results are shown below:

+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| letter | amount | letter | amount |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| A      |    130 | A      |    387 |
| B      |    150 | B      |    268 |
| C      |    321 | C      |    532 |
| D      |    783 | NULL   |   NULL |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+
4 rows in set (0.01 sec)

If you change line 17 from an LEFT JOIN to a RIGHT JOIN, you return all the rows from the beta CTE and only those rows from the alpha CTE that have a matching letter column value. The new line 17 for a RIGHT JOIN is:

17	SELECT * FROM alpha a RIGHT JOIN beta b

It returns the following result set:

+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| letter | amount | letter | amount |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| A      |    130 | A      |    387 |
| B      |    150 | B      |    268 |
| C      |    321 | C      |    532 |
| NULL   |   NULL | E      |    391 |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

MySQL does not support a FULL JOIN operation but you can mimic a full join by combining a LEFT JOIN and RIGHT JOIN with the UNION operator. The UNION operator performs a unique sort operation, which reduces the two copies of matching rows returned by both the left and right join operation to a unique set.

This is the way to write the equivalent of a full join:

WITH alpha AS
 (SELECT 'A' AS letter, 130 AS amount
  UNION
  SELECT 'B' AS letter, 150 AS amount
  UNION
  SELECT 'C' AS letter, 321 AS amount
  UNION
  SELECT 'D' AS letter, 783 AS amount)
, beta AS
 (SELECT 'A' AS letter, 387 AS amount
  UNION
  SELECT 'B' AS letter, 268 AS amount
  UNION
  SELECT 'C' AS letter, 532 AS amount
  UNION
  SELECT 'E' AS letter, 391 AS amount)
SELECT * FROM alpha LEFT JOIN beta
ON alpha.letter = beta.letter
UNION
SELECT * FROM alpha right JOIN beta
ON alpha.letter = beta.letter;

It returns one copy of the matching rows, and the non-matching rows from both the alpha and beta CTEs:

+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| letter | amount | letter | amount |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| A      |    130 | A      |    387 |
| B      |    150 | B      |    268 |
| C      |    321 | C      |    532 |
| D      |    783 | NULL   |   NULL |
| NULL   |   NULL | E      |    391 |
+--------+--------+--------+--------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

A NATURAL JOIN would return no rows because it works by implicitly discovering columns with matching names in both CTEs and then joins the result set from both CTEs. While the letter column matches rows between the CTEs the amount column doesn’t hold any matches. The combination of letter and amount columns must match for a NATURAL JOIN operation to return any rows.

You also have the ability to override the cost optimizer and force a left to right join by using the STRAIGHT_JOIN operator. As always, I hope this helps those looking for a solution with an explanation.

Written by maclochlainn

January 26th, 2021 at 10:55 pm

Posted in MySQL,MySQL 8,sql

Tagged with MySQL Developer

MySQL Membership

without comments

MySQL membership conditions are in the MySQL 8 Documentation. They’re found in the 13.2.11.3 Subqueries with ANY, IN, or SOME section. The IN and =ANY operators both perform equality matches with one twist. The IN operator works with a set of values or a subquery but the =ANY operator only works with a subquery.

I created the digits, letters, and words tables for this example. They hold the following values respectively:

The numbers table holds the values of 1, 2, 3, and 4
The letters table holds the values of 'a', 'b', 'c', and 'd'
The words table holds the values of 'Captain America', 'Iron Man', 'Thor', and Ant-Man

The following examples show the IN and =ANY membership comparison operators:

The IN membership operator:

The first example shows you how to use the IN operator with a set of values and the second example shows you how to use the IN operator with a subquery:

SELECT 'True Statement' AS result
WHERE  'a' IN ('a','b','c','d');

SELECT 'True Statement' AS result
WHERE  'a' IN (SELECT letter FROM letters);

The previous evaluations are case insensitive membership comparisons against a set of values and a return set from a subquery. You can make a case sensitive membership comparison by putting the BINARY keyword before one of the strings in a comparison. The BINARY keyword converts the string to a binary string and forces a binary string comparison of the two strings (MySQL 8.0 Reference Manual: 12.8.1 – String Comparison Operators and Functions).

SELECT 'True Statement' AS result
WHERE   BINARY 'a' IN (SELECT letter FROM letters);

The =ANY membership operator:

The same approach doesn’t work when you try to perform a membership comparison against a result set:

SELECT 'True Statement' AS result
WHERE  'a' =ANY ('a','b','c','d');

It returns the following error because the ANY, SOME, and ALL membership operators only work with subqueries. They all fail when you try to have them work with sets:

ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ''a','b','c','d')' at line 2

The following math operators work with the ANY, SOME, and ALL membership operators:

While the ANY and SOME membership operators work alike, the AND operator works differently. The ANY and SOME membership operators work like an OR logical operator in the WHERE clause.

For example, the following <ANY comparison works when the right operand is in the set but not the largest element returned by the subquery.

SELECT 'True Statement' AS result
WHERE  2 <SOME (SELECT digit FROM numbers);

You can use a <=ANY or <=SOME when the left operand is equal to the highest digit in the subquery’s result set. The <ALL comparison only works when the left operand is a digit lower than the smallest element returned by the subquery.

SELECT 'True Statement' AS result
WHERE   0 <ALL (SELECT digit FROM numbers);

Here’s a set of SQL commands to setup the test cases for membership operators:

DROP TABLE letters;
CREATE TABLE letters (letter VARCHAR(10));
DROP TABLE numbers;
CREATE TABLE numbers (digit int);
DROP TABLE words;
CREATE TABLE words (word VARCHAR(20));
INSERT INTO letters VALUES ('a'),('b'),('c'),('d'),('e');
INSERT INTO numbers VALUES (1),(2),(3),(4),(5);
INSERT INTO words VALUES ('Captain America'),('Thor'),('Iron Man'),('Ant-Man');

As always, I hope this helps those looking for more examples and good solutions.

Written by maclochlainn

January 24th, 2021 at 1:25 am

Posted in macOS,MySQL 8,sql

Tagged with MySQL Developer

MySQL macOS Docker

without comments

While you can download MySQL as a DMG package, a number of users would prefer to install it as a Docker instance. You won’t find the macOS downloads on the same web site as other downloads. You can use the following macOS download site.

After installing Docker on your macOS, you can pull a copy of the current MySQL Server with the following command:

docker pull mysql/mysql-server

You should create a mysql directory inside your ~/Documents directory with this command:

mkdir ~/Documents/mysql

Then, you should use the cd command to change into the ~/Documents/mysql directory and run this command:

pwd

It should return the following directory:

/Users/<user_name>/Documents/mysql

Use the /Users/<user_name>/Documents/mysql as the in this command:

docker run --name=mysql1 --volume=<path_to_folder>:/var/lib/mysql -p 33060:3306/tcp -d mysql/mysql-server

The --name option value is mysql1 and it becomes the container value. Docker mounts the column in the ~/Documents/mysql folder. All data from the Docker container under the /var/lib/mysql directory will persist in this directory. This directory will still contain the database when the container is shut down.

The docker run command maps the localhost’s 33060 port to the 3306 port on the Docker container. You will use the 33060 port to connect to the Docker instance of MySQL. It raises a dialog box asking for permission to access the directory. You need to allow Docker to write to the ~/Documents/mysql directory.

You can verify that the Docker container is running with the following command:

docker ps

It should return:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                COMMAND                  CREATED         STATUS                   PORTS                                      NAMES
142b5c491cd8   mysql/mysql-server   "/entrypoint.sh mysq…"   7 minutes ago   Up 6 minutes (healthy)   33060-33061/tcp, 0.0.0.0:33060->3306/tcp   mysql1

You can get the MySQL generated root password with this Docker command:

docker logs mysql1 2>&1 | grep GENERATED

It returns something like the following:

[Entrypoint] GENERATED ROOT PASSWORD: vop#3GNYqK3nC@S@N3haf3nox5E

Use the following Docker command to connect to the Docker container:

docker exec -it mysql1 /bin/bash

It launches a Bash shell inside the Docker container:

bash-4.2#

Start the mysql Command-Line Interface (CLI):

mysql -uroot -p

You are then prompted for a password:

Enter password:

After successfully entering the password, you’ll see the following:

Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 55
Server version: 8.0.22
 
Copyright (c) 2000, 2020, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
 
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.
 
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
 
mysql>

Unless you want to remember that hugely complex root password, you should consider changing it to something simple like, 'cangetin' with the following command:

ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH MYSQL_NATIVE_PASSWORD BY 'cangetin';

Next, you should check for the installed databases with this command:

show databases;

It will return:

+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| mysql              |
| performance_schema |
| sys                |
+--------------------+
4 rows in set (0.01 sec)

Exiting mysql, you can see the contents of the root user’s directory with this list command:

ls -al

It should return:

total 84
drwxr-xr-x   1 root root 4096 Jan 12 03:41 .
drwxr-xr-x   1 root root 4096 Jan 12 03:41 ..
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root    0 Jan 12 03:41 .dockerenv
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root    7 Oct 12 22:06 bin -> usr/bin
dr-xr-xr-x   2 root root 4096 Apr 11  2018 boot
drwxr-xr-x   5 root root  340 Jan 12 03:41 dev
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4096 Oct 19 05:47 docker-entrypoint-initdb.d
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root 7496 Oct 19 05:37 entrypoint.sh
drwxr-xr-x   1 root root 4096 Jan 12 03:41 etc
-rw-r--r--   1 root root   86 Jan 12 03:41 healthcheck.cnf
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root 1073 Oct 19 05:37 healthcheck.sh
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4096 Apr 11  2018 home
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root    7 Oct 12 22:06 lib -> usr/lib
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root    9 Oct 12 22:06 lib64 -> usr/lib64
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4096 Apr 11  2018 media
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4096 Apr 11  2018 mnt
-rw-r--r--   1 root root    0 Jan 12 03:41 mysql-init-complete
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4096 Apr 11  2018 opt
dr-xr-xr-x 127 root root    0 Jan 12 03:41 proc
dr-xr-x---   1 root root 4096 Jan 12 04:21 root
drwxr-xr-x   1 root root 4096 Oct 19 05:47 run
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root    8 Oct 12 22:06 sbin -> usr/sbin
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4096 Apr 11  2018 srv
dr-xr-xr-x  13 root root    0 Jan 12 03:41 sys
drwxrwxrwt   1 root root 4096 Jan 12 03:41 tmp
drwxr-xr-x   1 root root 4096 Oct 12 22:06 usr
drwxr-xr-x   1 root root 4096 Oct 12 22:06 var

At this point, you have to make a choice about how you will access the MySQL database. You have a couple options:

Create an individual student user that can access the MySQL-Server as a micro-service, which would only be a MySQL user connecting through MySQL workbench. At least, that’s the only connection option unless you likewise install the mysql client on your host macOS. The mysql client lets you connect from the host operating system through the Command-Line Interface (CLI).
Create a local student user account inside the Docker container. It will have access to the container file system and mimic the behavior of a non-root user on a server.

Let’s create both for this demonstration. Reconnect as the root user and issue the following two commands:

CREATE USER 'student'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH MYSQL_NATIVE_PASSWORD BY 'student';
CREATE USER 'student'@'%.%.%.%'   IDENTIFIED WITH MYSQL_NATIVE_PASSWORD BY 'student';

The first version of the student user lets you access the database from inside the Docker container. The second version of the student user lets you access the database from MySQL Workbench deployed on your base macOS.

You can add a sakila database and grant all privileges to the student user with the following command as the root user:

CREATE DATABASE sakila;
GRANT ALL ON sakila.* TO 'student'@'localhost';
GRANT ALL ON sakila.* TO 'student'@'%.%.%.%';

You need to get the sakila database from the Internet within the Docker container. Exit the mysql client with the following command:

quit;

As the root user, install the wget and tar Linux utilities with this command:

yum install -y wget tar

As the student user, you can use the wget command to grab a copy of the sakila database and store the database locally. Use the cd command to get to your ${HOME} directory, like:

cd

Use this syntax to get a copy of the sakila database:

wget http://downloads.mysql.com/docs/sakila-db.tar.gz

Use the ls command to verify the download, then run the following set of Linux commands from the Linux CLI:

tar -xzf sakila-db.tar.gz
cd sakila-db

Run the following two commands from the sakila-db directory:

mysql -ustudent -p < sakila-schema.sql
mysql -ustudent -p < sakila-data.sql

or, you can connect as the student user to the MySQL client and run them there:

source sakila-schema.sql
source sakila-data.sql

You create a non-root student user for the Docker container from the macOS host opearting system. Which means you need to quit; the mysql client, and exit the root user’s session with the Docker container.

At the terminal in your macOS, issue the following Docker command to create a student account in the mysql1 container:

docker exec mysql1 bash -c "useradd -u 501 -g mysql -G users \
>      -d /home/student -s /bin/bash -c "Student" -n student"

Now, you can connect as the student user to the mysql1 container, with the following Docker command:

docker exec -it --user student mysql1 bash

The first time you connect, you will be a the / (root) directory. Use the following cd command to go to the student user’s home directory:

cd

Then, type the following command to set the student user’s home directory as the default. You need to use this command because vim isn’t installed in the default Docker container, which would let you interactively edit files. It appends the necessary Bash shell command to the end of the .bashrc file.

echo 'cd ${HOME}' >> .bashrc

With this change, the student user will always be available form its home directory next time you connect to the mysql1 container. You can use scp to move files into the student user’s home (/home/student) directory. However, you can create a quick test.sql file like this:

echo "select user();" > test.sql

Connect to the mysql CLI with as the student user:

mysql -ustudent -p

Call your test.sql file from the Linux CLI, like:

mysql -ustudent -p < test.sql

or, you can run the test.sql program as follows form the MySQL command-line:

source test.sql

It will return:

+-------------------+
| user()            |
+-------------------+
| student@localhost |
+-------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

That’s the basic setup of the Docker MySQL Container on the macOS. You can do much more once you’ve configured it like this. For example, you can add vim to your library repository as the root user with the following command:

yum install -y vim

It just takes a minute or a bit more. Adding vim opens up so much flexibility for you inside the Docker container, it’s impossible for me to resist. 😉

Written by maclochlainn

January 11th, 2021 at 10:20 pm

Posted in Docker,Linux,Mac,Mac OS X,macOS,MySQL,MySQL 8,MySQL Client,MySQL Workbench,sql

Tagged with MySQL DBA, MySQL Developer

PL/pgSQL OUT Mode

without comments

A friend asked me a question about using the OUT mode parameter versus INOUT mode parameters in functions. He formed an opinion that they didn’t work in PostgreSQL PL/pgSQL.

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of material written about how to use the OUT mode parameter in functions. I thought an article showing the standard example with a call to the function might help. The standard example function from the PostgreSQL documentation is:

CREATE OR REPLACE 
  FUNCTION sales_tax( IN  amount  real
                    , OUT tax     real )
  AS $$
BEGIN
  /* Calculate the tax at 6%. */
  tax := amount * 0.06;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

The RETURNS clause is optional but here’s how you can include it. The following example works exactly like the former.

CREATE OR REPLACE 
  FUNCTION sales_tax( IN  amount  real
                    , OUT tax     real )
  RETURNS real AS
$$
BEGIN
  /* Calculate the tax at 6%. */
  tax := amount * 0.06;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

You call the PostgreSQL sales_tax() function like this:

SELECT 'Sales Tax ['|| sales_tax(200) ||']' AS "Return Value";

It should return the following:

  Return Value  
----------------
 Sales Tax [12]
(1 row)

You can also call it in an inline code block (e.g., what Oracle documentation calls an anonymous block), like:

DO
$$
DECLARE
  /* Declare a local variable. */
  tax_paid  real := 0;
BEGIN
  /* Query the results into a local variable. */
  SELECT sales_tax(100) INTO tax_paid;
 
  /* Print the taxes paid. */
  RAISE NOTICE 'Tax Paid [%]',tax_paid;
END;
$$;

You can replace the sales_tax function with its OUT mode tax parameter with the following classic sales_tax function, which adds a tax_rate parameter.

CREATE OR REPLACE
  FUNCTION sales_tax( IN  amount   real
                    , IN  tax_rate real )
  RETURNS real AS $$
DECLARE
  /* Declare a local variable. */
  tax real;
BEGIN
  /* Calculate the tax at 6%. */
  tax := amount * (tax_rate / 100);
 
  /* Return the tax. */
  RETURN tax;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

Let’s return the original approach with the OUT parameter. Then, let’s expand the list of parameters to include an INOUT mode state variable, like:

CREATE OR REPLACE
  FUNCTION sales_tax( IN     amount   real
                    , IN     tax_rate real
                    , INOUT  state    VARCHAR(14)
                    , OUT    tax      real )
  RETURNS RECORD AS
$$
BEGIN
  /* Calculate the tax at 6%. */
  tax := amount * (tax_rate / 100);
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

You don’t need to include the RETURNS RECORD phrase because PL/pgSQL implements a very mature adapter pattern and it adjusts the return type automatically to the parameter list. On the other hand, many beginning programmers and support staff won’t know that. That’s why I recommend you include it for clarity.

You can call this in a query with a column alias, like:

SELECT 'Sales Tax ['|| sales_tax(100,8.25,'California') ||']' AS "Return Value";

It will return a tuple:

         Return Value          
-------------------------------
 Sales Tax [(California,8.25)]
(1 row)

You can implement it inside an inline block by adding a local variable of the RECORD data type, like:

DO
$$
DECLARE
  /* Declare a local variable. */
  state     varchar(14) := 'California';
  tax_paid  real        := 0;
  result    RECORD;
BEGIN
  /* Query the results into a local variable. */
  SELECT sales_tax(100,8.25,state) INTO result;
 
  /* Print the taxes paid. */
  RAISE NOTICE 'Tax Paid [%]', result;
END;
$$;

It prints the following:

NOTICE:  Tax Paid [("(California,8.25)")]

You can actually return the individual members of the tuple by putting the function call inside the FROM clause, like:

SELECT * FROM sales_tax(100,8.25,'California');

It now returns the members of the tuple in separate columns:

   state    | tax  
------------+------
 California | 8.25
(1 row)

Alternatively, you can call it from inside an inline block, like:

DO
$$
DECLARE
  /* Declare a local variable. */
  state     varchar(14) := 'California';
  tax_paid  real        := 0;
BEGIN
  /* Query the results into a local variable. */
  SELECT * INTO state, tax_paid FROM sales_tax(100,8.25,state);
 
  /* Print the taxes paid. */
  RAISE NOTICE 'Tax Paid [%] [%]', state, tax_paid;
END;
$$;

It prints:

NOTICE:  Tax Paid [California] [8.25]

Now, let’s rewrite the function into a traditional function with all IN mode variables that returns a RECORD structure with additional values. Just one quick caveat (the big but), you can only assign values to dynamically constructed RECORD structures by using the SELECT-INTO or FOR statements. Below is the refactored sales_tax() function:

CREATE OR REPLACE
  FUNCTION sales_tax( IN  subtotal REAL
                    , IN  tax_rate REAL
                    , IN  state    VARCHAR(14))
  RETURNS RECORD AS
$$
DECLARE
  /* Declare a local variable. */
  tax        REAL;
  tax_record RECORD;
BEGIN
  /* Calculate the tax at 6%. */
  tax := subtotal * (tax_rate / 100);
 
  /* Assign state to record. */
  SELECT state, tax INTO tax_record;
 
  /* Return the tax. */
  RETURN tax_record;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

It returns the same set of values as the early version with the four parameter example above but you only need three IN-only mode variables to get the result. Other than the parameter lists, the biggest change appears to be the assignment line, which is required in the explicit and traditional function that has only IN mode parameters:

16	SELECT state, tax INTO tax_record;

Given you can return any RECORD structure you want, why use INOUT and OUT mode parameters? Don’t you loose clarity about what your stored function does? Or, at least, don’t you make understanding the program logic more difficult when you use INOUT and OUT mode variables? The only benefit appears to be when you shift your input variables from the SELECT clause to the INTO clause.

Hopefully, this shows folks how to use the OUT mode parameter; and how closely related it is to a classic function.

Written by maclochlainn

November 25th, 2020 at 12:36 am

Posted in Fedora,Linux,PL/pgSQL,Postgres,PostgreSQL,sql

Tagged with PostgreSQL DBA, PostgreSQL Developer

MySQL Self-Join

with 4 comments

I’m switching to MySQL and leveraging Alan Beaulieu’s Learning SQL as a supporting reference for my Database Design and Development course. While reviewing Alan’s Chapter 5: Querying Multiple Tables, I found his coverage of using self-joins minimal.

In fact, he adds a prequel_film_id column to the film table in the sakila database and then a single row to demonstrate a minimal self-join query. I wanted to show them how to view a series of rows interconnected by a self-join, like the following:

SELECT   f.title AS film
,        fp.title AS prequel
FROM     film f LEFT JOIN film fp
ON       f.prequel_id = fp.film_id
WHERE    f.series_name = 'Harry Potter'
ORDER BY f.series_number;

It returns the following result set:

+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| film                                         | prequel                                      |
+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets      | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone        |
| Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban     | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets      |
| Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire          | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban     |
| Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix    | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire          |
| Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince       | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix    |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 | Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince       |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 |
+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Then, I thought about what questions the students might ask. For example, why doesn’t the query return the first film that doesn’t have a prequel. So, I took the self-join to the next level to display the first film having no prequel, like this:

SELECT   f.title AS film
,        IFNULL(
           CASE
             WHEN NOT f.film_id = fp.film_id
             AND      f.prequel_id = fp.film_id THEN fp.title		   
           END,'None') AS prequel
FROM     film f LEFT JOIN film fp
ON       f.prequel_id = fp.film_id
WHERE    f.series_name = 'Harry Potter'
ORDER BY f.series_number;

The CASE operator in the SELECT-list filters the result set by eliminating rows erroneously returned. Without the CASE filter, the query would return the original Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone film matched agains a NULL and all of the other sequels. The CASE operator effectively limits the result set for the LEFT JOIN to only the following data:

+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| film                                         | prequel                                   |
+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone        | NULL                                         |
+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+

The IFNULL() built-in function lets you replace the NULL value returned as the prequel’s title value. The IFNULL() function substitutes a 'None' string literal for a NULL value. The query returns the following result set:

+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| film                                         | prequel                                      |
+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone        | None                                         |
| Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets      | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone        |
| Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban     | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets      |
| Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire          | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban     |
| Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix    | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire          |
| Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince       | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix    |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 | Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince       |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 |
+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
8 rows in set (0.01 sec)

Alan’s modification of the sakila.film table had the following two related design flaws:

It didn’t provide a way to guarantee the ordering of films with prequels because relational databases don’t guarantee ordered result sets unless you use an ORDER BY clause, which typically requires a column to order.
It didn’t provide a way to isolate a series of films.

I modified the film table differently by adding the series_name, series_number, and prequel_id columns. The series_name column lets you group results and the series_number column lets you order by a preserved sequence that you store as part of the data The prequel_id column lets you connect to the prequel film, much like the backward portion of a doubly linked list.

The new sakila.film table is:

+----------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+------+-----+-------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Field                | Type                                                                | Null | Key | Default           | Extra                                         |
+----------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+------+-----+-------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| film_id              | smallint unsigned                                                   | NO   | PRI | NULL              | auto_increment                                |
| title                | varchar(255)                                                        | NO   | MUL | NULL              |                                               |
| description          | text                                                                | YES  |     | NULL              |                                               |
| release_year         | year                                                                | YES  |     | NULL              |                                               |
| language_id          | tinyint unsigned                                                    | NO   | MUL | NULL              |                                               |
| original_language_id | tinyint unsigned                                                    | YES  | MUL | NULL              |                                               |
| rental_duration      | tinyint unsigned                                                    | NO   |     | 3                 |                                               |
| rental_rate          | decimal(4,2)                                                        | NO   |     | 4.99              |                                               |
| length               | smallint unsigned                                                   | YES  |     | NULL              |                                               |
| replacement_cost     | decimal(5,2)                                                        | NO   |     | 19.99             |                                               |
| rating               | enum('G','PG','PG-13','R','NC-17')                                  | YES  |     | G                 |                                               |
| special_features     | set('Trailers','Commentaries','Deleted Scenes','Behind the Scenes') | YES  |     | NULL              |                                               |
| last_update          | timestamp                                                           | NO   |     | CURRENT_TIMESTAMP | DEFAULT_GENERATED on update CURRENT_TIMESTAMP |
| series_name          | varchar(20)                                                         | YES  |     | NULL              |                                               |
| series_number        | int unsigned                                                        | YES  |     | NULL              |                                               |
| prequel              | int unsigned                                                        | YES  |     | NULL              |                                               |
+----------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+------+-----+-------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
16 rows in set (0.21 sec)

+----------------------+------------- | Field | Type +----------------------+------------- | film_id | smallint unsigned | title | varchar(255) | description | text | release_year | year | language_id | tinyint unsigned | original_language_id | tinyint unsigned | rental_duration | tinyint unsigned | rental_rate | decimal(4,2) | length | smallint unsigned | replacement_cost | decimal(5,2) | rating | enum('G','PG | special_features | set('Trailer | last_update | timestamp | series_name | varchar(20) | series_number | int unsigned | prequel | int unsigned +----------------------+------------- 16 rows in set (0.21 sec) --------------------------------------------------------+------+-----+-------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | Null | Key | Default | Extra | --------------------------------------------------------+------+-----+-------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment | | NO | MUL | NULL | | | YES | | NULL | | | YES | | NULL | | | NO | MUL | NULL | | | YES | MUL | NULL | | | NO | | 3 | | | NO | | 4.99 | | | YES | | NULL | | | NO | | 19.99 | | ','PG-13','R','NC-17') | YES | | G | | s','Commentaries','Deleted Scenes','Behind the Scenes') | YES | | NULL | | | NO | | CURRENT_TIMESTAMP | DEFAULT_GENERATED on update CURRENT_TIMESTAMP | | YES | | NULL | | | YES | | NULL | | | YES | | NULL | | --------------------------------------------------------+------+-----+-------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

After adding the three new columns, I inserted eight rows for the original Harry Potter films. You can use the following script in the MySQL client (mysql) to add the columns and insert the data to test the preceding queries:

-- Use sakila database.
USE sakila;
 
-- Add a prequel_id column to the sakila.film table.
ALTER TABLE film
ADD (series_name    varchar(20)),
ADD (series_number  int unsigned),
ADD (prequel_id     int unsigned);
 
-- Set primary to foreign key local variable.
SET @sv_film_id = 0;
 
-- Insert Harry Potter films in sakila.film table with classic values clause.
INSERT INTO film
( title
, description
, release_year
, language_id
, original_language_id
, rental_duration
, rental_rate
, length
, replacement_cost
, rating
, special_features
, last_update
, series_name
, series_number
, prequel_id )
VALUES
('Harry Potter and the Sorcerer''s Stone'
,'A film about a young boy who on his eleventh birthday discovers, he is the orphaned boy of two powerful wizards and has unique magical powers.'
, 2001
, 1
, NULL
, 3
, 0.99
, 152
, 19.99
,'PG'
,'Trailers'
,'2001-11-04'
,'Harry Potter'
, 1
, NULL );
 
-- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable.
SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id();
 
-- Insert 2nd film in sakila.film table with classic values clause.
INSERT INTO film
( title
, description
, release_year
, language_id
, original_language_id
, rental_duration
, rental_rate
, length
, replacement_cost
, rating
, special_features
, last_update
, series_name
, series_number
, prequel_id )
VALUES
('Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'
,'A film where Harry returning to Hogwarts, still famous and a hero, when strange things start to happen ... people are turning to stone and no-one knows what, or who, is doing it.'
, 2002
, 1
, NULL
, 3
, 0.99
, 160
, 19.99
,'PG'
,'Trailers'
,'2002-11-15'
,'Harry Potter'
, 2
, @sv_film_id );
 
-- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable.
SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id();
 
-- Insert 3rd film in sakila.film table with classic values clause.
INSERT INTO film
( title
, description
, release_year
, language_id
, original_language_id
, rental_duration
, rental_rate
, length
, replacement_cost
, rating
, special_features
, last_update
, series_name
, series_number
, prequel_id )
VALUES
('Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'
,'A film where Harry, Ron, and Hermione return for their third year at Hogwarts and are forced to face escaped prisoner, Sirius Black.'
, 2004
, 1
, NULL
, 3
, 0.99
, 141
, 19.99
,'PG'
,'Trailers'
,'2004-06-04'
,'Harry Potter'
, 3
, @sv_film_id );
 
-- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable.
SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id();
 
-- Insert 4th film in sakila.film table with classic values clause.
INSERT INTO film
( title
, description
, release_year
, language_id
, original_language_id
, rental_duration
, rental_rate
, length
, replacement_cost
, rating
, special_features
, last_update
, series_name
, series_number
, prequel_id )
VALUES
('Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'
,'A film where where Harry Potter''s name emerges from the Goblet of Fire, and he becomes a competitor in a grueling battle for glory among three wizarding schools - the Triwizard Tournament.'
, 2005
, 1
, NULL
, 3
, 0.99
, 157
, 19.99
,'PG'
,'Trailers'
,'2005-11-18'
,'Harry Potter'
, 4
, @sv_film_id );
 
-- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable.
SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id();
 
-- Insert 5th film in sakila.film table with classic values clause.
INSERT INTO film
( title
, description
, release_year
, language_id
, original_language_id
, rental_duration
, rental_rate
, length
, replacement_cost
, rating
, special_features
, last_update
, series_name
, series_number
, prequel_id )
VALUES
('Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'
,'A film where Lord Voldemort has returned, but the Ministry of Magic is doing everything it can to keep the wizarding world from knowing the truth.'
, 2007
, 1
, NULL
, 3
, 0.99
, 138
, 19.99
,'PG-13'
,'Trailers'
,'2007-07-12'
,'Harry Potter'
, 5
, @sv_film_id );
 
-- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable.
SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id();
 
-- Insert 6th film in sakila.film table with classic values clause.
INSERT INTO film
( title
, description
, release_year
, language_id
, original_language_id
, rental_duration
, rental_rate
, length
, replacement_cost
, rating
, special_features
, last_update
, series_name
, series_number
, prequel_id )
VALUES
('Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince'
,'A film where Voldemort is tightening his grip on Hogwarts and it is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry and Dumbledore work to find the key to unlock the Dark Lord''s defenses.'
, 2009
, 1
, NULL
, 3
, 0.99
, 153
, 19.99
,'PG'
,'Trailers'
,'2009-07-15'
,'Harry Potter'
, 6
, @sv_film_id );
 
-- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable.
SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id();
 
-- Insert 7th film in sakila.film table with classic values clause.
INSERT INTO film
( title
, description
, release_year
, language_id
, original_language_id
, rental_duration
, rental_rate
, length
, replacement_cost
, rating
, special_features
, last_update
, series_name
, series_number
, prequel_id )
VALUES
('Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1'
,'A film where Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on their perilous mission to track down and destroy the Horcruxes - the keys to Voldemort''s immortality.'
, 2010
, 1
, NULL
, 3
, 0.99
, 146
, 19.99
,'PG-13'
,'Trailers'
,'2010-11-19'
,'Harry Potter'
, 7
, @sv_film_id );
 
-- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable.
SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id();
 
-- Insert 8th film in sakila.film table with classic values clause.
INSERT INTO film
( title
, description
, release_year
, language_id
, original_language_id
, rental_duration
, rental_rate
, length
, replacement_cost
, rating
, special_features
, last_update
, series_name
, series_number
, prequel_id )
VALUES
('Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2'
,'A film where Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on their perilous mission to track down and destroy the Horcruxes - the keys to Voldemort''s immortality.'
, 2011
, 1
, NULL
, 3
, 0.99
, 130
, 19.99
,'PG-13'
,'Trailers'
,'2011-07-15'
,'Harry Potter'
, 8
, @sv_film_id );

-- Use sakila database. USE sakila; -- Add a prequel_id column to the sakila.film table. ALTER TABLE film ADD (series_name varchar(20)), ADD (series_number int unsigned), ADD (prequel_id int unsigned); -- Set primary to foreign key local variable. SET @sv_film_id = 0; -- Insert Harry Potter films in sakila.film table with classic values clause. INSERT INTO film ( title , description , release_year , language_id , original_language_id , rental_duration , rental_rate , length , replacement_cost , rating , special_features , last_update , series_name , series_number , prequel_id ) VALUES ('Harry Potter and the Sorcerer''s Stone' ,'A film about a young boy who on his eleventh birthday discovers, he is the orphaned boy of two powerful wizards and has unique magical powers.' , 2001 , 1 , NULL , 3 , 0.99 , 152 , 19.99 ,'PG' ,'Trailers' ,'2001-11-04' ,'Harry Potter' , 1 , NULL ); -- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable. SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id(); -- Insert 2nd film in sakila.film table with classic values clause. INSERT INTO film ( title , description , release_year , language_id , original_language_id , rental_duration , rental_rate , length , replacement_cost , rating , special_features , last_update , series_name , series_number , prequel_id ) VALUES ('Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' ,'A film where Harry returning to Hogwarts, still famous and a hero, when strange things start to happen ... people are turning to stone and no-one knows what, or who, is doing it.' , 2002 , 1 , NULL , 3 , 0.99 , 160 , 19.99 ,'PG' ,'Trailers' ,'2002-11-15' ,'Harry Potter' , 2 , @sv_film_id ); -- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable. SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id(); -- Insert 3rd film in sakila.film table with classic values clause. INSERT INTO film ( title , description , release_year , language_id , original_language_id , rental_duration , rental_rate , length , replacement_cost , rating , special_features , last_update , series_name , series_number , prequel_id ) VALUES ('Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' ,'A film where Harry, Ron, and Hermione return for their third year at Hogwarts and are forced to face escaped prisoner, Sirius Black.' , 2004 , 1 , NULL , 3 , 0.99 , 141 , 19.99 ,'PG' ,'Trailers' ,'2004-06-04' ,'Harry Potter' , 3 , @sv_film_id ); -- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable. SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id(); -- Insert 4th film in sakila.film table with classic values clause. INSERT INTO film ( title , description , release_year , language_id , original_language_id , rental_duration , rental_rate , length , replacement_cost , rating , special_features , last_update , series_name , series_number , prequel_id ) VALUES ('Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' ,'A film where where Harry Potter''s name emerges from the Goblet of Fire, and he becomes a competitor in a grueling battle for glory among three wizarding schools - the Triwizard Tournament.' , 2005 , 1 , NULL , 3 , 0.99 , 157 , 19.99 ,'PG' ,'Trailers' ,'2005-11-18' ,'Harry Potter' , 4 , @sv_film_id ); -- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable. SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id(); -- Insert 5th film in sakila.film table with classic values clause. INSERT INTO film ( title , description , release_year , language_id , original_language_id , rental_duration , rental_rate , length , replacement_cost , rating , special_features , last_update , series_name , series_number , prequel_id ) VALUES ('Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' ,'A film where Lord Voldemort has returned, but the Ministry of Magic is doing everything it can to keep the wizarding world from knowing the truth.' , 2007 , 1 , NULL , 3 , 0.99 , 138 , 19.99 ,'PG-13' ,'Trailers' ,'2007-07-12' ,'Harry Potter' , 5 , @sv_film_id ); -- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable. SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id(); -- Insert 6th film in sakila.film table with classic values clause. INSERT INTO film ( title , description , release_year , language_id , original_language_id , rental_duration , rental_rate , length , replacement_cost , rating , special_features , last_update , series_name , series_number , prequel_id ) VALUES ('Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince' ,'A film where Voldemort is tightening his grip on Hogwarts and it is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry and Dumbledore work to find the key to unlock the Dark Lord''s defenses.' , 2009 , 1 , NULL , 3 , 0.99 , 153 , 19.99 ,'PG' ,'Trailers' ,'2009-07-15' ,'Harry Potter' , 6 , @sv_film_id ); -- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable. SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id(); -- Insert 7th film in sakila.film table with classic values clause. INSERT INTO film ( title , description , release_year , language_id , original_language_id , rental_duration , rental_rate , length , replacement_cost , rating , special_features , last_update , series_name , series_number , prequel_id ) VALUES ('Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1' ,'A film where Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on their perilous mission to track down and destroy the Horcruxes - the keys to Voldemort''s immortality.' , 2010 , 1 , NULL , 3 , 0.99 , 146 , 19.99 ,'PG-13' ,'Trailers' ,'2010-11-19' ,'Harry Potter' , 7 , @sv_film_id ); -- Assign the last generated primary key value to the local variable. SET @sv_film_id := last_insert_id(); -- Insert 8th film in sakila.film table with classic values clause. INSERT INTO film ( title , description , release_year , language_id , original_language_id , rental_duration , rental_rate , length , replacement_cost , rating , special_features , last_update , series_name , series_number , prequel_id ) VALUES ('Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2' ,'A film where Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on their perilous mission to track down and destroy the Horcruxes - the keys to Voldemort''s immortality.' , 2011 , 1 , NULL , 3 , 0.99 , 130 , 19.99 ,'PG-13' ,'Trailers' ,'2011-07-15' ,'Harry Potter' , 8 , @sv_film_id );

You can put the following commands into a SQL script file to revert the sakila.film table to its base configuration:

DELETE FROM film WHERE film_id > 1000;
ALTER TABLE film DROP COLUMN series_name;
ALTER TABLE film DROP COLUMN series_number;
ALTER TABLE film DROP COLUMN prequel_id;
ALTER TABLE film AUTO_INCREMENT = 1000;

As always, I hope this helps those looking for how to solve a new problem.

Written by maclochlainn

November 22nd, 2020 at 4:03 pm

Posted in Database Design,DBA,DevOps,LAMP,Linux,Mac,macOS,MAMP,MySQL,MySQL 8,MySQL Client,sql

Tagged with MySQL DBA, MySQL Developer

MySQL Client in 8.0.21+

without comments

Having recently installed a fresh copy of MySQL 8.0.21 on Windows, I took careful note of parsing changes in the MySQL Shell. It was tedious that we lost multiple statement processing, which is supported in the MySQL Client and MySQL Workbench because it uses MySQL Client.

It was frustrating when I subsequently discovered that the MySQL Shell took away the ability to write log files by removing the TEE and NOTEE commands. I suspected that since MySQL Workbench was still using the MySQL Client that it should be in the code tree. In fact, the mysql.exe client is in this directory:

C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 8.0\bin

So, I immediately created a batch file to put the MySQL Client into my %PATH% environment variable when needed. I used this time tested DOS command:

copy con mysqlclient.bat
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 8.0\bin;.
^Z

Now you can call the MySQL client with the following syntax if you have a student user and studentdb database:

mysql -ustudent -p -Dstudentdb

This way, I can just call it in a PowerShell utility before running migration script files that should generate log files for review. It also leaves the MySQL Client out of general use.

Written by maclochlainn

November 8th, 2020 at 3:19 pm

Posted in MySQL,MySQL 8,MySQL Client,MySQL Shell,sql,Windows 10

Tagged with MySQL DBA, MySQL Developer

Conditional Updates

without comments

While I’m switching labs next term after more than a decade with more comprehensive lab set, I’m hoping the new exercises build the students’ core SQL skill set. Next term, I hope to see whether the change is successful. I’ve opted for using Alan Beaulieu’s Learning SQL: Generate, Manipulate, and Retrieve Data, 3rd Edition, because it’s a great book and uses the MySQL database.

One exercise that the students will lose is a data migration exercise from a badly designed common_lookup table to a well designed common_lookup table. The starting point is shown below on the left and the fixed version is on the right.

There are several problems with the original common_lookup table’s design. The first problem is that the common_lookup_context column does not uniquely identify a location within the data model for at least one list of lookup values. While it uses table names generally, it has no way to support two or more lists within the same table. It also uses a 'MULTIPLE' string for a list of values that supports two tables. The two tables supported by 'MULTIPLE' string are the address and telephone tables.

The lab instructions have the students add the following three columns to the table:

common_lookup_table
common_lookup_column
common_lookup_code

Together the combination of the common_lookup_table and common_lookup_column columns create a non-unique super key. The super key identifies micro subtables. The combination of the common_lookup_table, common_lookup_column, and common_lookup_type columns creates a unique natural key that defines all possible values for a lookup list based on a column in a table.

The lab asked the students to use the existing data, string literal values, and some simple rules to populate the new common_lookup_table and common_lookup_column columns with data. The rules or steps were:

Migrate valid table names from the common_lookup_context column to the common_lookup_table column.
Migrate a literal 'ADDRESS' value into the common_lookup_table column when the common_lookup_context column holds a 'MULTIPLE' string value.
Migrate valid table names from the common_lookup_context column to the common_lookup_column column by appending a '_TYPE' string literal to the common_lookup_context column values, except for those three rows that have a ‘VISA_CARD’, ‘MASTER_CARD’, or ‘DISCOVER_CARD’. The three exempted rows should update the common_lookup_column column with a 'CREDIT_CARD_TYPE' string literal.
Migrate a literal 'ADDRESS_TYPE' value into the common_lookup_column column when the common_lookup_context column holds a 'MULTIPLE' string value.
After these changes, insert two new rows in the common_lookup table. They should contain 'TELEPHONE' and 'TELEPHONE_TYPE' string literal values. One of the rows should contain 'HOME' for the common_lookup_type column value and the other 'WORK' for the same column.
Then, the students were asked to update the foreign key column value in the telephone_type column of the telephone table.

It was a tremendous learning experience for those who did it because there were so many steps required to migrate the structure and data. Years ago, I would offer students half their final grade if they could complete the first four steps in a single UPDATE statement. Occasionally, I had students complete it. We worked through the problem with a small group of students today in one of my two weekly tutoring sessions. I thought it might be nice to document the solution, which use CASE operators in the SET clause of the UPDATE statement.

UPDATE common_lookup
SET    common_lookup_table =
         CASE
           WHEN NOT common_lookup_context = 'MULTIPLE' THEN
             common_lookup_context
           ELSE
             'ADDRESS'
         END
,      common_lookup_column =
         CASE
           WHEN common_lookup_table = 'MEMBER' AND
                common_lookup_type IN ('VISA_CARD','MASTER_CARD','DISCOVER_CARD') THEN
             'CREDIT_CARD_TyPE'
           WHEN NOT common_lookup_context = 'MULTIPLE' THEN
             CONCAT(common_lookup_context,'_TYPE')
           ELSE
             'ADDRESS_TYPE'
         END;

As a rule, students would solve Step #6, which migrates the foreign key values of the telephone table’s telephone_type column to the new rows inserted into the common_lookup table. Most would accomplish that step with two UPDATE statements. Very few could see how to create a single UPDATE statement for both conditions and migrate from a now obsolete foreign key value that pointed to the rows of the address table’s rows in the common_lookup table to a valid foreign key value pointed to the telephone table’s rows in the common_lookup table:

UPDATE   telephone
SET      telephone_type =
           CASE
             WHEN common_lookup_type = 'HOME' THEN
               (SELECT common_lookup_id
                FROM common_lookup
                WHERE common_lookup_table = 'TELEPHONE'
                AND common_lookup_type = 'HOME')
             ELSE
               (SELECT common_lookup_id
                FROM common_lookup
                WHERE common_lookup_table = 'TELEPHONE'
                AND common_lookup_type = 'WORK')
             END
WHERE    telephone_type = 
           (SELECT common_lookup_id
            FROM common_lookup
            WHERE common_lookup_table = 'ADDRESS'
            AND common_lookup_type IN ('HOME','WORK');

As always, I hope this helps those looking for new ideas in SQL.

Written by maclochlainn

November 5th, 2020 at 11:03 pm

Posted in DBA,Fedora,Linux,MySQL,MySQL 8,sql

Tagged with MySQL Developer

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