Count of Consecutive Values

  • Hi everyone,

    I have a database as follows:

    Card(CardId bigint, SerialNumber varchar, CardStatusId int)

    CardStatus(CardStatusId int, Name varchar)

    The CardStatus is a lookup table and CardStatusId in Card is the foreign key.

    Take this sample

    Card Status Table

    CardStatusId Name

    1 a

    2 b

    3 c

    Card Table

    SerialNumber CardStatusId

    1 1

    2 1

    3 1

    4 2

    5 2

    6 3

    7 2

    8 2

    9 2

    The values in the CardId column shouldn't affect the query.

    The query I need should return something like:

    FromSerial ToSerial Count CardStatus

    1 3 3 a

    4 5 2 b

    6 6 1 c

    7 9 3 b

    The query I need can't use cursors or loops.

    Any help would be appreciated.

  • (Assuming you are a student with a homework assignment )

    Lookup references for Aggregate functions and Group By.  The solution is really pretty easy.

    Hope this helps



    Mark

  • This is a Microsoft interview question...

  • I took this as a challenge and tried to come up with something for you, unfortunately, even though I have SERIALNO in three aggregate functions, QA rejects my ORDER BY SERIALNO clause with this prompt:

    "SERIALNO is not a valid ORDERBY field because it is not included in either an AGGREGATE function or GROUP BY clause."

    DROP TABLE #CARD

    CREATE TABLE #CARD(CARDID TINYINT, SERIALNO TINYINT, STATUSID TINYINT)

    INSERT INTO #CARD

    SELECT 1,1,1 UNION ALL

    SELECT 2,2,1 UNION ALL

    SELECT 3,3,1 UNION ALL

    SELECT 4,4,2 UNION ALL

    SELECT 5,5,2 UNION ALL

    SELECT 6,6,3 UNION ALL

    SELECT 7,7,2 UNION ALL

    SELECT 8,8,2 UNION ALL

    SELECT 9,9,2

    SELECT * FROM #CARD

    DROP TABLE #STATUS

    CREATE TABLE #STATUS(STATUSID TINYINT, NAME VARCHAR)

    INSERT INTO #STATUS

    SELECT 1,'a' UNION ALL

    SELECT 2, 'b' UNION ALL

    SELECT 3, 'c'

    SELECT * FROM #STATUS

    SELECT MIN(SERIALNO) MINSNO, MAX(SERIALNO) MAXSNO, COUNT(SERIALNO) CNT, NAME

    FROM #CARD C INNER JOIN #STATUS S ON C.STATUSID = S.STATUSID

    GROUP BY NAME

    This is the result set I get without ORDER BY clause.

    MINSNO MAXSNO CNT NAME

    133a

    495b

    661c

    which agregates ALL StatusID.

    Hope it helps to point you in the correct direction.


    Regards,

    goodguy

    Experience is a bad teacher whose exams precede its lessons

  • Where do you get those?  Wouldn't mind seeing the rest of them...

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

  • All previous solutions assume that SerialNumber is sequential.

    Have a look at these solutions

    http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=85913

     


    N 56°04'39.16"
    E 12°55'05.25"

  • Hi,

    By looking at sqlteam.com I've come up with this:

    CREATE TABLE #x

    (serialnumber BIGINT, cardstatus INT, grp INT )

    INSERT #x (serialnumber, cardstatus)

        SELECT serialnumber, cardstatus FROM card

    DECLARE @Last INT

    DECLARE @grp INT

    SET @grp = 0

    SET @Last = 0

    UPDATE #x

        SET @grp = grp = CASE WHEN cardstatus = @Last THEN @grp ELSE @grp + 1 END,

        @Last

    = cardstatus

    SELECT

        MIN(serialnumber) AS FromSerialNo, MAX(serialnumber) AS ToSerialNo, COUNT(*) AS      Count, B.NAME AS Status

    FROM

    #x A

        INNER JOIN cardstatus B ON A.cardstatus = B.cardstatusid

    GROUP BY grp, cardstatus, B.NAME

    ORDER BY MIN(serialnumber)

  • It will work when you add a clustered index over serialnumber.

     


    N 56°04'39.16"
    E 12°55'05.25"

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