outer apply alternative

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outer apply alternative

boehnc

Ten Centuries

Points: 1003
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June 9, 2021 at 3:25 am
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#3893687

My goal is to get the results below. Trying to get the nearest date and result from the #Data table where the resultdate<=ProcDate. An outer apply is taking 4 hours for a 400 row table. Another more efficient way of doing this? I have several more '#Data' tables (CTE's) to join to the #patient table in the same manner. Thanks for the help
Patient/ProcDate/ResultDate/Value
1/2020-01-08/2020-01-02, 2
2/2020-01-02/2020-01-01, 8
3/2020-01-03/

create table #patient
(Patient Int,
ProcDate date
)
Insert into #patient
values
(1,'2020-01-08')
,(2,'2020-01-02')
,(3,'2020-01-03')
create table #Data
(
Patient Int,
ResultDate date,
Value Int
)
Insert into #Data
values
(1,'2020-01-02', 2)
,(1,'2020-01-10', 3)
,(2,'2020-01-01', 8)
,(2,'2020-01-04', 5)
,(2,'2020-01-11', 4)
,(3,'2020-01-08', 6)
pietlinden

SSC Guru

Points: 63503
More actions
June 9, 2021 at 3:46 am
Answer
#3893689
4 hours seems excessive. Are the join columns on the two tables indexed? Did you look at the execution plan?
What's your SQL query look like? Something like this? (The FREEPROCCACHE is to make sure I'm not reading cached data pages)
```
DBCC FREEPROCCACHE;

SET STATISTICS IO ON;
SET STATISTICS TIME ON;

SELECT p.Patient
, p.ProcDate
, ca.ResultDate
, ca.Val
FROM #patient p
CROSS APPLY (SELECT TOP 1 *
FROM #Data d
WHERE d.Patient = p.Patient
AND d.ResultDate <= p.ProcDate
ORDER BY d.ResultDate) ca
```
But without information about your indexing on the two tables, there's not much to suggest.
To make sure I wasn't just talking smack, I tested this out on AdventureWorks... And the query took hardly any time at all. So, there must be something you're not telling us? Here's the messages I got back:
SQL Server parse and compile time:
CPU time = 0 ms, elapsed time = 0 ms.
(28586 rows affected)
Table 'Worktable'. Scan count 19820, logical reads 104313, physical reads 0, page server reads 0, read-ahead reads 0, page server read-ahead reads 0, lob logical reads 0, lob physical reads 0, lob page server reads 0, lob read-ahead reads 0, lob page server read-ahead reads 0.
Table 'SalesOrderHeader'. Scan count 1, logical reads 689, physical reads 0, page server reads 0, read-ahead reads 0, page server read-ahead reads 0, lob logical reads 0, lob physical reads 0, lob page server reads 0, lob read-ahead reads 0, lob page server read-ahead reads 0.
Table 'Customer'. Scan count 1, logical reads 37, physical reads 0, page server reads 0, read-ahead reads 0, page server read-ahead reads 0, lob logical reads 0, lob physical reads 0, lob page server reads 0, lob read-ahead reads 0, lob page server read-ahead reads 0.
SQL Server Execution Times:
CPU time = 437 ms, elapsed time = 893 ms.
How many records are in your two tables, and what indexes do you have on each?
- This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by pietlinden.
- This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by pietlinden. Reason: More information

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SGT_squeequal SSCertifiable Points: 7167 More actions · Answer 1

Using the representative data you have supplied do you actually need to use cross apply, a simple left join will return your expected results

 select a.patient,ProcDate,ResultDate,Value
 from #patient a
 left join #data b on a.patient=b.patient 
 and  resultdate<=isnull(procdate,getdate())

TEST

***The first step is always the hardest *******

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004324 More actions · Answer 2

boehnc wrote:

My goal is to get the results below. Trying to get the nearest date and result from the #Data table where the resultdate<=ProcDate. An outer apply is taking 4 hours for a 400 row table. Another more efficient way of doing this? I have several more '#Data' tables (CTE's) to join to the #patient table in the same manner. Thanks for the help
Patient/ProcDate/ResultDate/Value
1/2020-01-08/2020-01-02, 2
2/2020-01-02/2020-01-01, 8
3/2020-01-03/
create table #patient (Patient Int, ProcDate date )
Insert into #patient
values
(1,'2020-01-08') ,(2,'2020-01-02') ,(3,'2020-01-03')
create table #Data
( Patient Int, ResultDate date, Value Int
)
Insert into #Data
values (1,'2020-01-02', 2) ,(1,'2020-01-10', 3) ,(2,'2020-01-01', 8) ,(2,'2020-01-04', 5) ,(2,'2020-01-11', 4) ,(3,'2020-01-08', 6)

Even a bad outer apply shouldn't take 4 hours. Please post the code and the table defintion so we can have a look-see. Thanks.

--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.

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