Is there a limit of the output of a JOIN statement - c#

In reporting Services, the user can choose a list with different customers. The report then generates total figures for the chosen customers. I have 2 tables in the report that incorporate the total revenue. However, when you choose all customers, the totals of the 2 tables differs. For every individual customer however, the tables match.
In the first table I use a simple query like this:
select revenue from customers where customernumber in (#CustomerNumber)
This one always shows the correct figures. However, for the second table, I have to call a stored procedure:
create procedure calculaterevenue (
#customernumber varchar(1200), #customercategory varchar(255)=NULL
)
In the procedure, a table valued function is used to take all the customernumbers that are in a comma-separated list and make then usable for the in operator:
and customernumber in (select value from fnStringToList',',#customernumber)
In the Dataset of the report, I have added an parameter #Customers that is
=JOIN(Parameters!Customernumber.Value,",")
And I call my procedure with
exec calculaterevenue (#Customers)
This works perfectly, until you select a lot of customers. I suspect the problem lies within the JOIN. Is there a maximum output for the JOIN statement?

Related

Checking multiple columns have any of multiple values in a Table value parameter

I am trying to create a query to help get a list of accounts from an existing database. I will have two lists of integers passed in through two Table Value Parameters(TVP) from C#. I then need to see if multiple columns have any of the values in the corresponding TVP tables. The TVP lists of integers are provided by different clients and may differ between clients. That is why they are TVP's to allow the values to be passed in as parameters.
The data structure cannot be changed, it is created based on data from another system. Comments about changing the data structure won't be helpful. To help I will talk about an example table that would help show what I need.
Looking at a table like the following:
Table Accounts
varchar(200) AccountId
int StatusId1
int StatusId2
int StatusId3
int StatusId4
int Identifier1
int Identifier2
int Identifier3
int Identifier4
int Identifier5
I know that I can do a sql statement like:
Select AccountId from Accounts where StatusId1 In (1,2,3)
I was able to learn that I can reverse the In command as well:
Select AccountId from Accounts where 1 In (StatusId1, StatusId2, StatusId3, StatusId4)
This only lets me check one value against each column. The problem is I need to mix the two while using the TVP for the list of integers.
The closest I have been able to create is the following:
--Load the TVP lists
SELECT * INTO #StatusCodes FROM #StatusId
SELECT * INTO #IdentityCodes FROM #IdentifierId
--Find the Accounts that have the chosen Ids
SELECT AccountId
FROM Accounts
WHERE StatusId1 IN( SELECT Id FROM #StatusCodes)
OR StatusId2 IN( SELECT Id FROM #StatusCodes)
OR StatusId3 IN( SELECT Id FROM #StatusCodes)
OR StatusId4 IN( SELECT Id FROM #StatusCodes)
OR Identifier1 IN (SELECT Id FROM #IdentityCodes)
OR Identifier2 IN (SELECT Id FROM #IdentityCodes)
OR Identifier3 IN (SELECT Id FROM #IdentityCodes)
OR Identifier4 IN (SELECT Id FROM #IdentityCodes)
OR Identifier5 IN (SELECT Id FROM #IdentityCodes)
This query worked in my prototype and I got back the list of accounts that had at least one of these ids. I see a lot of select statements and it doesn't look very good. I am not sure how well it performs either. I am wondering if there is a better way to do this?
This is for a system that creates a report based on conditions our clients make. Each client runs from a couple to 100 reports each night. That means this is run possibly hundreds of times each night. While it isn't a system running thousands of times per hour, it does process a lot of data. Some of the databases it will search will be big with lots of accounts to search.
One option uses exists:
select a.acountId
from accounts a
where
exists (
select 1
from #StatusCodes s
where s.id in (a.StatusId1, a.StatusId2, a.StatusId3, a.StatusId4)
)
or exists (
select 1
from #IdentityCodes i
where i.id in (a.Identifier1, a.Identifier2, a.Identifier3, a.Identifier4)
)

Split t-sql results into data tables, by non-numerical value in a field

I writing a C# program to output t-SQL records into separate tabs in an excel spreadsheet, split by the person the records belong to.
I have seen that I can have many data tables in a single data set, and turn each into a separate tab (how to store multiple DataTables into single DataSet in c#?), so now I need to populate my data tables.
I do not have a fixed list of people, it will vary each time the program is run, and a person could have any number of records assigned to them.
Is there a way of doing this using SQL / C# using something like order or group by; or do I have to get my results, pick up the list of people, then loop each SQL query for that specific person and feed that into a new data table?
Thought I'd ask if anyone knew a short way before I did it the long way, because this can't be an uncommon thing to do; so I suspect there must be a simpler way.
Normally you get one DataTable per SELECT statement.
However, you could just select everything and then use LINQ to group the data and fill your DataTables. See if this is any help.
It depends on the table structure, as well as for the source as for the destination.
If you have multiple source tables you can append them together with the UNION statement. Which gives the distinct value of all tables. You can use UNION ALL to keep duplicate values.
SELECT customer_key, customer_name, customer_address
FROM table_1
WHERE customer_key = #Customer_key
UNION (or UNION ALL)
SELECT customer_key, customer_name, customer_address
FROM table_2
WHERE Customer_key = #Customer_key
UNION etc..

c# vs mysql: calling function in sql select statement vs fetching data and calling same function in c#

We are a product website with several products having guarantee. Guarantee is only applicable for few products with particular dealerids. The 2 tables are:
Product table with columns as id, name, cityId, dealerId, price. This table has all the products.
GuaranteeDealers table with column as dealerId. This has all dealer with guaranteed products.
We want to get all products with info if it is guaranteed or not. The query looks like:
APPROACH1: Get isGuaranteed from sql function to server(c#) side:
select id, name, cityId, dealerId, price, isGuaranteed = isGuaranteed( dealerId) from customers
isGuaranteed is a sql function that checks if dealerId is in the table guranteeDealers. If yes it returns 1 else 0.
I have 50000 products and 500 such dealers and this query takes too long to execute.
OR
APPROACH2: Get list of dealers and set isGuaranteed flag in c#(server) side.
select id, name, cityId, dealerId, price. Map these to c# list of products
select dealerId from guaranteeDealers table to c# list of dealers.
Iterate product records in c# and set the isGuaranteed flag by c# function that checks if product's dealerId is in c# list of guaranteeDealers.
This takes very less time compared to 1.
While both approaches look similar to me, can someone explain why it takes so long time to execute function in select statement in mysql? Also which is correct to do, approach 1 or 2?
Q: "why it takes so long time to execute function in select statement in mysql?"
In terms of performance, executing a correlated subquery 50,000 times will eat our lunch, and if we're not careful, it will eat our lunchbox too.
That subquery will be executed for each and every row returned by the outer query. That's like executing 50,000 separate, individual SELECT statements. And that's going to take time.
Hiding a correlated subquery inside a MySQL stored program (function) doesn't help. That just adds overhead on each execution of the subquery, and makes things slower. If we strip out the function and bring that subquery inline, we are probably looking at something like this:
SELECT p.id
, p.name
, p.cityId
, p.dealerId
, p.price
, IFNULL( ( SELECT 1
FROM guaranteeDealers d
WHERE d.dealerId = p.dealerID
LIMIT 1
)
,0) AS isGuarantee
FROM products p
ORDER BY ...
For each and every row returned from products (that isn't filtered out by a predicate e.g. condition in the WHERE clause), this is essentially telling MySQL to execute a separate SELECT statement. Run a query to look to see if the dealerID is found in the guaranteeDealers table. And that happens for each row.
If the outer query is only returning a couple of rows, then that's only a couple of extra SELECT statements to execute, and we aren't really going to notice the extra time. But when we return tens (or hundreds) of thousands of rows, that starts to add up. And it gets expensive, in terms of the total amount of time all those query executions take.
And if we "hide" that subquery in a MySQL stored program (function), that adds more overhead, introducing a bunch of context switches. From query executing in the database context, calling a function that switches over to the stored program engine which executes the function, which then needs to run a database query, which switches back to the database context to execute the query and return a resultset, switching back to the stored program environment to process the resultset and return a value, and then switching back to the original database context, to get the returned value. If we have to do that a couple of times, no big whoop. Repeat that tens of thousands of times, and that overhead is going to add up.
(Note that native MySQL built-in functions don't have this same context switching overhead. The native functions are compiled code that execute within the database context. Which is a big reason we favor native functions over MySQL stored programs.)
If we want improved performance, we need to ditch the processing RBAR (row by agonizing row), which gets excruciatingly slow for large sets. We need to approach the problem set-wise rather than row-wise.
We can tell MySQL what set to return, and let it figure out the most efficient way to return that. Rather than us round tripping back and forth to the database, executing individual SQL statements to get little bits of the set piecemeal, using instructions that dictate how MySQL should prepare the set.
In answer to the question
Q: "which approach is correct"
both approaches are "correct" is as much as they return the set we're after.
The second approach is "better" in that it significantly reduces the number of SELECT statements that need to be executed (2 statements rather than 50,001 statements).
In terms of the best approach, we are usually better off letting MySQL do the "matching" of rows, rather than doing the matching in client code. (Why unnecessarily clutter up our code doing an operation that can usually be much more efficiently accomplished in the database.) Yes, sometimes we need to do the matching in our code. And occasionally it turns out to be faster.
But sometimes, we can write just one SELECT statement that specifies the set we want returned, and let MySQL have a go at it. And if it's slow, we can do some tuning, looking at the execution plan, making sure suitable indexes are available, and tweaking the query.
Given the information in the question about the set to be returned, and assuming that dealerId is unique in the guaranteeDealers table. If our "test" is whether a matching row exists in the guaranteeDealers table, we can use an OUTER JOIN operation, and an expression in the SELECT list that returns a 0 or 1, depending on whether a matching row was found.
SELECT p.id
, p.name
, p.cityId
, p.dealerId
, p.price
, IF(d.dealerId IS NULL,0,1) AS isGuarantee
FROM products p
LEFT
JOIN guaranteeDealers d
ON d.dealerId = p.dealerId
ORDER BY ...
For optimal performance, we are going to want to have suitable indexes defined. At a mimimum (if there isn't already such an index defined)
ON guaranteeDealers (dealerId)
If there are also other tables that are involved in producing the result we are after, then we want to also involve that table in the query we execute. That will give the MySQL optimizer a chance to come up with the most efficient plan to return the entire set. And not constrain MySQL to performing individual operations to be return bits piecemeal.
select id, name, cityId, customers.dealerId, price,
isGuaranteed = guaranteeDealers.dealerId is not null
from customers left join guaranteeDealers
on guaranteeDealers.dealerId = customets.dealerId
No need to call a function.
Note I have used customers because that is the table you used in your question - although I suspect you might have meant products.
Approach 1 is the better one because it reduces the size of the resultset being transferred from the database server to the application server. Its performance problem is caused by the isGuaranteed function, which is being executed once per row (of the customers table, which looks like it might be a typo). An approach like this would be much more performant:
select p.id, p.name, p.cityId, p.dealerId, p.price, gd.IsGuaranteed is not null
from Product p
left join GuaranteeDealers gd on p.dealerId = gd.dealerId

What is the best way, algorithm, method to difference large lists of data?

I am receiving a large list of current account numbers daily, and storing them in a database. My task is to find added and released accounts from each file. Right now, I have 4 SQL tables, (AccountsCurrent, AccountsNew, AccountsAdded, AccountsRemoved). When I receive a file, I am adding it entirely to AccountsNew. Then running the below queries to find which we added and removed.
INSERT AccountsAdded(AccountNum, Name) SELECT AccountNum, Name FROM AccountsNew WHERE AccountNumber not in (SELECT AccountNum FROM AccountsCurrent)
INSERT AccountsRemoved(AccountNum, Name) SELECT AccountNum, Name FROM AccountsCurrent WHERE AccountNumber not in (SELECT AccountNum FROM AccountsNew)
TRUNCATE TABLE AccountsCurrent
INSERT AccountsCurrent(AccountNum, Name) SELECT AccountNum, Name FROM AccountsNew
TRUNCATE TABLE AccountsNew
Right now, I am differencing about 250,000 accounts, but this is going to keep growing. Is this the best method, do you have any other ideas?
EDIT:
This is an MSSQL 2000 database. I'm using c# to process the file.
The only data I am focused on is the accounts that were added and removed between the last and current files. The AccountsCurrent, is only used to determine what accounts were added or removed.
To be honest, I think that I'd follow something like your approach. One thing is that you could remove the truncate, do a rename of the "new" to "current" and re-create "new".
Sounds like a history/audit process that might be better done using triggers. Have a separate history table that captures changes (e.g., timestamp, operation, who performed the change, etc.)
New and deleted accounts are easy to understand. "Current" accounts implies that there's an intermediate state between being new and deleted. I don't see any difference between "new" and "added".
I wouldn't have four tables. I'd have a STATUS table that would have the different possible states, and ACCOUNTS or the HISTORY table would have a foreign key to it.
Using IN clauses on long lists can be slow.
If the tables are indexed, using a LEFT JOIN can prove to be faster...
INSERT INTO [table] (
[fields]
)
SELECT
[fields]
FROM
[table1]
LEFT JOIN
[table2]
ON [join condition]
WHERE
[table2].[id] IS NULL
This assumes 1:1 relationships and not 1:many. If you have 1:many you can do any of...
1. SELECT DISTINCT
2. Use a GROUP BY clause
3. Use a different query, see below...
INSERT INTO [table] (
[fields]
)
SELECT
[fields]
FROM
[table1]
WHERE
EXISTS (SELECT * FROM [table2] WHERE [condition to match tables 1 and 2])
-- # This is quick provided that all fields to match the two tables are
-- # indexed in both tables. Should then be much faster than the IN clause.
You could also subtract the intersection to get the differences in one table.
If the initial file is ordered in a sensible and consistent way (big IF!), it would run considerably faster as a C# program which logically compared the files.

Can I get the rowcount before executing a stored procedure?

I have some complex stored procedures that may return many thousands of rows, and take a long time to complete.
Is there any way to find out how many rows are going to be returned before the query executes and fetches the data?
This is with Visual Studio 2005, a Winforms application and SQL Server 2005.
You mentioned your stored procedures take a long time to complete. Is the majority of the time taken up during the process of selecting the rows from the database or returning the rows to the caller?
If it is the latter, maybe you can create a mirror version of your SP that just gets the count instead of the actual rows. If it is the former, well, there isn't really that much you can do since it is the act of finding the eligible rows which is slow.
A solution to your problem might be to re-write the stored procedure so that it limits the result set to some number, like:
SELECT TOP 1000 * FROM tblWHATEVER
in SQL Server, or
SELECT * FROM tblWHATEVER WHERE ROWNUM <= 1000
in Oracle. Or implement a paging solution so that the result set of each call is acceptably small.
make a stored proc to count the rows first.
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM table
Unless there's some aspect of the business logic of you app that allows calculating this, no. The database it going to have to do all the where & join logic to figure out how line rows, and that's the vast majority of the time spend in the SP.
You can't get the rowcount of a procedure without executing the procedure.
You could make a different procedure that accepts the same parameters, the purpose of which is to tell you how many rows the other procedure should return. However, the steps required by this procedure would normally be so similar to those of the main procedure that it should take just about as long as just executing the main procedure.
You would have to write a different version of the stored procedure to get a row count. This one would probably be much faster because you could eliminate joining tables which you aren't filtered against, remove ordering, etc. For example if your stored proc executed the sql such as:
select firstname, lastname, email, orderdate from
customer inner join productorder on customer.customerid=productorder.productorderid
where orderdate>#orderdate order by lastname, firstname;
your counting version would be something like:
select count(*) from productorder where orderdate>#orderdate;
Not in general.
Through knowledge about the operation of the stored procedure, you may be able to get either an estimate or an accurate count (for instance, if the "core" or "base" table of the query is able to be quickly calculated, but it is complex joins and/or summaries which drive the time upwards).
But you would have to call the counting SP first and then the data SP or you could look at using a multiple result set SP.
It could take as long to get a row count as to get the actual data, so I wouldn't advodate performing a count in most cases.
Some possibilities:
1) Does SQL Server expose its query optimiser findings in some way? i.e. can you parse the query and then obtain an estimate of the rowcount? (I don't know SQL Server).
2) Perhaps based on the criteria the user gives you can perform some estimations of your own. For example, if the user enters 'S%' in the customer surname field to query orders you could determine that that matches 7% (say) of the customer records, and extrapolate that the query may return about 7% of the order records.
Going on what Tony Andrews said in his answer, you can get an estimated query plan of the call to your query with:
SET showplan_text OFF
GO
SET showplan_all on
GO
--Replace with call you your stored procedure
select * from MyTable
GO
SET showplan_all ofF
GO
This should return a table, or many tables which will let you get the estimated row count of your query.
You need to analyze the returned data set, to determine what is a logical, (meaningful) primary key for the result set that is being returned. In general this WILL be much faster than the complete procedure, because the server is not constructing a result set from data in all the columns of each row of each table, it is simply counting the rows... In general, it may not even need to read the actual table rows off disk to do this, it may simply need to count index nodes...
Then write another SQL statement that only includes the tables necessary to generate those key columns (Hopefully this is a subset of the tables in the main sql query), and the same where clause with the same filtering predicate values...
Then add another Optional parameter to the Stored Proc called, say, #CountsOnly, with a default of false (0) as so...
Alter Procedure <storedProcName>
#param1 Type,
-- Other current params
#CountsOnly TinyInt = 0
As
Set NoCount On
If #CountsOnly = 1
Select Count(*)
From TableA A
Join TableB B On etc. etc...
Where < here put all Filtering predicates >
Else
<Here put old SQL That returns complete resultset with all data>
Return 0
You can then just call the same stored proc with #CountsOnly set equal to 1 to just get the count of records. Old code that calls the proc would still function as it used to, since the parameter value is set to default to false (0), if it is not included
It's at least technically possible to run a procedure that puts the result set in a temporary table. Then you can find the number of rows before you move the data from server to application and would save having to create the result set twice.
But I doubt it's worth the trouble unless creating the result set takes a very long time, and in that case it may be big enough that the temp table would be a problem. Almost certainly the time to move the big table over the network will be many times what is needed to create it.

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