Hierarchical Queries

Hierarchical Queries

If a table contains hierarchical data, then you can select rows in a hierarchical order using the hierarchical query clause:

START WITH specifies the root row(s) of the hierarchy.

CONNECT BY specifies the relationship between parent rows and child rows of the hierarchy.

Both the CONNECT BY condition and the PRIOR expression can take the form of an uncorrelated subquery. However, CURRVAL and NEXTVAL are not valid PRIOR expressions, so the PRIOR expression cannot refer to a sequence.

SELECT ename, empno, mgr, LEVEL
      FROM emp
      START WITH empno = 7839
      CONNECT BY PRIOR empno = mgr
      ORDER SIBLINGS BY ename;

SELECT ename, empno, mgr, LEVEL,sys_connect_by_path(ename,'/')
      FROM emp
      START WITH empno = 7839
      CONNECT BY PRIOR empno = mgr
      ORDER SIBLINGS BY ename;

                

CONNECT_BY_ISCYCLE Pseudocolumn

The CONNECT_BY_ISCYCLE pseudocolumn returns 1 if the current row has a child which is also its ancestor. Otherwise it returns 0.
You can specify CONNECT_BY_ISCYCLE only if you have specified the NOCYCLE parameter of the CONNECT BY clause. NOCYCLE enables Oracle to return the results of a query that would otherwise fail because of a CONNECT BY loop in the data.

CONNECT_BY_ISLEAF Pseudocolumn

The CONNECT_BY_ISLEAF pseudocolumn returns 1 if the current row is a leaf of the tree defined by the CONNECT BY condition. Otherwise it returns 0. This information indicates whether a given row can be further expanded to show more of the hierarchy.
CONNECT_BY_ISLEAF Example The following example shows the first three levels of the hr.employees table, indicating for each row whether it is a leaf row (indicated by 1 in the IsLeaf column) or whether it has child rows (indicated by 0 in the IsLeaf column):

SELECT last_name "Employee", CONNECT_BY_ISLEAF "IsLeaf",
   LEVEL, SYS_CONNECT_BY_PATH(last_name, '/') "Path"
   FROM employees
   WHERE LEVEL <= 3 AND department_id = 80
   START WITH employee_id = 100
   CONNECT BY PRIOR employee_id = manager_id AND LEVEL <= 4;

Employee            IsLeaf      LEVEL Path
--------------- ---------- ---------- -----------------------------------
Russell                  0          2 /King/Russell
Tucker                   1          3 /King/Russell/Tucker
Bernstein                1          3 /King/Russell/Bernstein
Hall                     1          3 /King/Russell/Hall
Olsen                    1          3 /King/Russell/Olsen
Cambrault                1          3 /King/Russell/Cambrault
Tuvault                  1          3 /King/Russell/Tuvault
Partners                 0          2 /King/Partners
King                     1          3 /King/Partners/King
Sully                    1          3 /King/Partners/Sully
McEwen                   1          3 /King/Partners/McEwen
Smith                    1          3 /King/Partners/Smith
Doran                    1          3 /King/Partners/Doran
Sewall                   1          3 /King/Partners/Sewall
Errazuriz                0          2 /King/Errazuriz
Vishney                  1          3 /King/Errazuriz/Vishney
...

34 rows selected.

LEVEL Pseudocolumn

For each row returned by a hierarchical query, the LEVEL pseudocolumn returns 1 for a root row, 2 for a child of a root, and so on. A root row is the highest row within an inverted tree. A child row is any nonroot row. A parent row is any row that has children. A leaf row is any row without children. Figure 3-1 shows the nodes of an inverted tree with their LEVEL values.