Hierarchical queries | Hierarchical Queries with

Examples

Hierarchical queries :
I have explained lot of advanced sql topics like materialized view in
sql , partitioning techniques in oracle. In this article i will try to explain
different hierarchical queries in oracle sql with real life
examples.Hierarchical queries are useful in reporting purpose and
when user wants to fetch the data from hierarchical structure these
queries are very useful.Before going to the details of hierarchical
queries first question comes to the mind is ‘What is mean by
Hierarchy?’.
Hierarchy is nothing but the parent child relationship
within same table or the view
Hierarchical queries are very traditional and one of the useful feature
in day to day life.Every company has hierarchical data.The traversing
of the hierarchy is bottom up or top down.

Examples :
Bottom up hierarchy :
If user wants to find the top hierarchy of employee then bottom up
hierarchy is used.

Top down hierarchy :

If user finds out the employees under manager then top down
hierarchy is used.

Hierarchical Queries with Examples :

There are 2 types of Hierarchical Queries in oracle:

1.Basic hierarchical query

2.Cyclic hierarchical query

In this section i will try give the real life example of the concept.To
write the query the data in the table should be in hierarchical
structure.

Step 1 :
Create the data in hierarchical structure
create table Employee_M
(Ename varchar2(20),employee_id varchar2(20),manager_id
varchar2(20));

insert into Employee_M

values(‘Amit’,’1′,’10’);
commit;

insert into Employee_M

values(‘Rakesh’,’10’,’2′);
commit;
insert into Employee_M
values(‘Anmol’,’3′,’2′);
commit;

insert into Employee_M

values(‘Karbhari’,’2′,null);
commit;

insert into Employee_M

values(‘rohit’,’4′,’10’);
commit;

Output :

Step 2 : Connect by ,Start with and prior clause :

Question : Write the query which will gives us the records of
the Employee and its manager?
To build the hierarchical query second most important part is use of
connect by and prior keywords.These are two mandatory keywords to
build hierarchy.Hierarchy will build like one row is parent of another row
and Start with keyword defines the ancestor.Here the real life example
is if user wants to see the manager name of employee then how that
query will work.
To show the top to bottom hierarchy :
select ename, employee_id, manager_id, prior ename, level
from Employee_M
connect by prior employee_id = manager_id
start with manager_id is null;
Output :

In above example we need to start with the keyword prior,

1.PRIOR is a unary operator which is used or indicates that “father of”

the records or first record.

2.START WITH clause is used to find out from which record user needs
to start the hierarchy. In above example we have started hierarchy with
the employee whose manager id is null.

3.LEVEL is a pseudocolumn which gives user the idea about the depth
of the hierarchy.

4.CONNECT BY gives user the idea about the first sibling record with
the specified condition.

Step 3 : Show the records in hierarchical structure

User can show the records into hierarchical structure using following
query :

select lpad(‘ ‘,level*5,’ ‘)||ename, employee_id, manager_id, prior

ename, level
from Employee_M
connect by prior employee_id = manager_id
start with manager_id is null
order siblings by ename;
Output :
Step 4 : If Manager is manager of himself then what to do?
There are the situations where manager is manager of himself/herself.
So We will create scenario of the same :

update Employee_M set manager_id=’2′ where employee_id=’2′;

commit;
If you run the same query then output will be blank. Lets make small
change and check :

select lpad(‘ ‘,level*5,’ ‘)||ename, employee_id, manager_id, prior

ename, level
from Employee_M
connect by prior employee_id = manager_id
start with manager_id=’2’
order siblings by ename;
The following error will come :

In that case oracle will not create the hierarchy for the query. So to
manage that oracle has provided NOCYCLE clause.

select lpad(‘ ‘,level*5,’ ‘)||ename, employee_id, manager_id, prior

ename, level
from Employee_M
connect by nocycle prior employee_id = manager_id
start with manager_id=’2’
order siblings by ename;
Output :

Step 5 : Query using connect_by_root

This is another important unary operator in oracle which will gives the
basic idea about the root of the hierarchy.If you want to see the boss’s
hierarchy then user needs to use connect_by_root keyword .

select lpad(‘ ‘,level*3,’ ‘)||ename name,

connect_by_root ename boss
from Employee_M
connect by prior employee_id = manager_id
start with manager_id is null;
Output:

Here the employee named Karbhari is boss of all other employees.

Step 6 : If user wants to see the bosses of employee

In this case user needs to use
keyword ‘SYS_CONNECT_BY_PATH(column_name,Delimiter)’
Query :
select lpad(‘ ‘,level*3,’ ‘)||ename name,
SYS_CONNECT_BY_PATH(ename,’/’) boss
from Employee_M
connect by prior employee_id = manager_id
start with manager_id is null;
Output :

Some Important Additions suggested by user Paul

Gibbs :
Using the Hierarchy in a PL/SQL structure, and subjecting the PL/SQL to
SQL*Plus.
Are there issues with using this SELECT … START WITH … CONNECT
PRIOR… with an INSERT INTO mytable in a SQL*Plus script using a
PL/SQL structure (see below the “code”) when I run this in SQL*Plus, it
runs and runs…. no feedback, no population in the table.

(NOTE: I took the liberty to convert my personal code and tables to the
training Employee tables, some syntax or names may not be 100%
accurate.)

DROP TABLE mytable;

CREAT TABLE mytable
( controlnbr number null,
lvlnbr varchar2(100) null,
emp_id varchar2(40) null,
emp_name varchar2(40) null,
mgr_id varchar2(40) null);
commit;

declare
employeeID varchar2(40) := ‘100’;
managerID varchar2(40) := ‘100’;
rec_empList myListOfEmp%rowtype; — I create a table with a list
of specific employees I wish to report, just has Emp_ID
cursor myList is
select emp_ID from myListOfEmp;

begin
open myList;
<>
fetch myList into rec_empList;
if myList%NOTFOUND then
go to CloseMyList;
end if;
employeeID := rec_MyList.Emp_ID;

INSERT INTO mytable

SELECT ROWNUM,
SUBSTR(LPAD(TO_CHAR(LEVEL),LEVEL,’.’),1,25),
employeeID,
employeeName,
managerID
FROM Employee_M
start with manager_id= employeeID
connect by prior employee_id=manager_id;

goto NextRec;

<>
close myList;

end;
In above examples i explained the hierarchical queries with different
examples.Hope you like this article.

12 Replies to “Hierarchical queries |

Hierarchical Queries with Examples”

1. utsab says:
September 27, 2018 at 10:35 am
 when an employee is his boss , then hierarchy output shows
Rakesh and Anmol having manager name as null ,

select lpad(‘*’,level*5,’ ‘)||Ename as Ename

,Employee_ID,Manager_ID, prior Ename as Manager_name
from Employee_M
connect by NOCYCLE prior employee_id=manager_id
start with manager_id=’2’
;

Reply

1. Amit S says:
September 27, 2018 at 3:01 pm

Thanks for suggestions

Reply

2. Mounika says:
December 14, 2018 at 3:28 pm
very easy to understand with good example

Reply

1. Amit S says:
December 14, 2018 at 3:40 pm
Thanks Mounika for appreciation!

Reply

3. Lakshmi says:
January 13, 2019 at 7:25 am
Good job and very well showcased!! Appreciate it !!

Reply

1. Amit S says:
January 15, 2019 at 1:17 pm
 Thanks Lakshmi for good words!!!

Reply

4. Rohini says:
March 11, 2019 at 10:10 pm
great !, these sqls helped to meet the requirement

Reply

1. Amit S says:
March 13, 2019 at 5:06 pm
Thanks Rohini for good words…:)

Reply

5. Paul Gibbs says:

April 17, 2019 at 1:01 am
The info about is most excellent, and helpful, however, I’m
injecting a few more additions: Using the Hierarchy in a PL/SQL
structure, and subjecting the PL/SQL to SQL*Plus.
Are there issues with using this SELECT … START WITH … CONNECT
PRIOR… with an INSERT INTO mytable in a SQL*Plus script using a
PL/SQL structure (see below the “code”) when I run this in
SQL*Plus, it runs and runs…. no feedback, no population in the
table. (NOTE: I took the liberty to convert my personal code and
tables to the training Employee tables, some syntax or names may
not be 100% accurate.)

DROP TABLE mytable;

CREAT TABLE mytable
( controlnbr number null,
lvlnbr varchar2(100) null,
emp_id varchar2(40) null,
emp_name varchar2(40) null,
mgr_id varchar2(40) null);
commit;

declare
employeeID varchar2(40) := ‘100’;
managerID varchar2(40) := ‘100’;
rec_empList myListOfEmp%rowtype; — I create a table with a list of
 specific employees I wish to report, just has Emp_ID
cursor myList is
select emp_ID from myListOfEmp;

begin
open myList;
<>
fetch myList into rec_empList;
if myList%NOTFOUND then
go to CloseMyList;
end if;
employeeID := rec_MyList.Emp_ID;

INSERT INTO mytable

SELECT ROWNUM,
SUBSTR(LPAD(TO_CHAR(LEVEL),LEVEL,’.’),1,25),
employeeID,
employeeName,
managerID
FROM Employee_M
start with manager_id= employeeID
connect by prior employee_id=manager_id;

goto NextRec;

<>
close myList;

end;

Reply

1. Amit S says:
May 14, 2019 at 11:31 am
added your views of Hierarchical query..

Reply

6. Aniket says:
May 17, 2019 at 12:51 pm
How to use connect by level in query
Reply

1. Amit S says:
May 31, 2019 at 1:00 pm
If you go through this article you will get to know how to use
this..

Reply