How does a Recursive CTE run, line by line?

Question

I think I\'ve got the format of Recursive CTEs down well enough to write one, but still find myself frustrated to no end that I cannot manually process one (pretend to be th

Answer 1

You were probably wanting this link. No, the anchor is not executed multiple times (it couldn't be, then union all would require that all of the results appear). Details at previous link.

Answer 2

Think of a recursive CTE as of an endless UNION ALL:

WITH    rows AS
        (
        SELECT  *
        FROM    mytable
        WHERE   anchor_condition
        ),
        rows2 AS
        (
        SELECT  *
        FROM    set_operation(mytable, rows)
        ),
        rows3 AS
        (
        SELECT  *
        FROM    set_operation(mytable, rows2)
        ),
        …
SELECT  *
FROM    rows
UNION ALL
SELECT  *
FROM    rows2
UNION ALL
SELECT  *
FROM    rows3
UNION ALL
…

In your case, that would be:

WITH    abcd1 AS
        ( 
        SELECT  *
        FROM    @tbl t
        WHERE   ParentId IS NULL 
        ),
        abcd2 AS
        ( 
        SELECT  t.*
        FROM    abcd1
        JOIN    @tbl t
        ON      t.ParentID = abcd1.id
        ),
        abcd3 AS
        ( 
        SELECT  t.*
        FROM    abcd2
        JOIN    @tbl t
        ON      t.ParentID = abcd2.id
        ),
        abcd4 AS
        ( 
        SELECT  t.*
        FROM    abcd3
        JOIN    @tbl t
        ON      t.ParentID = abcd3.id
        ),
        abcd5 AS
        ( 
        SELECT  t.*
        FROM    abcd4
        JOIN    @tbl t
        ON      t.ParentID = abcd4.id
        ),
        abcd6 AS
        ( 
        SELECT  t.*
        FROM    abcd5
        JOIN    @tbl t
        ON      t.ParentID = abcd5.id
        )
SELECT  *
FROM    abcd1
UNION ALL
SELECT  *
FROM    abcd2
UNION ALL
SELECT  *
FROM    abcd3
UNION ALL
SELECT  *
FROM    abcd4
UNION ALL
SELECT  *
FROM    abcd5
UNION ALL
SELECT  *
FROM    abcd6

Since abcd6 yields no results, this implies a stopping condition.

Theoretically, a recursive CTE can be infinite, but practically, SQL Server tries to forbid the queries that would lead to infinite recordsets.

You may want to read this article:

• SQL Server: are the recursive CTE’s really set-based?

Answer 3

Step 1:

1 Europe NULL Europe
2 Asia   NULL Asia

Step 2:

1 Europe  NULL Europe
2 Asia    NULL Asia
3 Germany 1    Europe/Germany
4 UK      1    Europe/UK
5 China   2    Asia/China
6 India   2    Asia/India

Step 3:

1 Europe   NULL Europe
2 Asia     NULL Asia
3 Germany  1    Europe/Germany
4 UK       1    Europe/UK
5 China    2    Asia/China
6 India    2    Asia/India
7 Scotland 4    Europe/UK/Scotland

Step 4:

1 Europe    NULL Europe
2 Asia      NULL Asia
3 Germany   1    Europe/Germany
4 UK        1    Europe/UK
5 China     2    Asia/China
6 India     2    Asia/India
7 Scotland  4    Europe/UK/Scotland
8 Edinburgh 7    Europe/UK/Scotland/Edinburgh

Step 5:

1 Europe    NULL Europe                             0
2 Asia      NULL Asia                               0
3 Germany   1    Europe/Germany                     1
4 UK        1    Europe/UK                          1
5 China     2    Asia/China                         1
6 India     2    Asia/India                         1
7 Scotland  4    Europe/UK/Scotland                 2
8 Edinburgh 7    Europe/UK/Scotland/Edinburgh       3
9 Leith     8    Europe/UK/Scotland/Edinburgh/Leith 4

The last column in step 5 is the Level. During each level the rows get added with respect to what is already available. Hope this helps.

Answer 4

The algorithm that CTE use is:

1. Execute the anchor part, get result r0
2. Execute the recursive part, using r0 as input, and get result r1 (not null)
3. Execute the recursive part, using r1 as input, and get result r2 (not null)
4. Execute the recursive part, using r3 as input, and get result r3 (not null) ...
5. Execute the recursive part, using r(n-1) as input, and output rn (null). This time rn is null, so we use UNION ALL to combine r0, r1, r2 ... r(n-1) and that's the final result

Lets take an example:

WITH    cte ( value )
          AS (
               SELECT   1
               UNION ALL
               SELECT   value + 1
               FROM     cte
               WHERE    value < 4
             )
    SELECT  *
    FROM    cte

The result of this query is:

value
-----------
1
2
3
4

(4 row(s) affected)

Let's examine it step by step:

Execute anchor query (SELECT 1), we got:
  r0 = 1
  cte = r0 = 1

    |
    |
    V

Now we execute
SELECT value + 1 FROM cte WHERE value < 4
Since cte is r0 (only has 1), we got:
  r1 = 2
  cte = r1 = 2

    |
    |
    V

Now we execute
SELECT value + 1 FROM cte WHERE value < 4
Since cte is r1 (only has 2), we got:
  r2 = 3
  cte = r2 = 3

    |
    |
    V

Now we execute
SELECT value + 1 FROM cte WHERE value < 4
Since cte is r2 (only has 3), we got:
  r3 = 4
  cte = r3 = 4

    |
    |
    V

Now we execute
SELECT value + 1 FROM cte WHERE value < 4
Since cte is r3 (only has 4), we got:
  r4 = NULL (because r3 (4) is equal to 4, not less than 4)
Now we stop the recursion!

    |
    |
    V

Let's calculate the final result:
R = r0 union all
    r1 union all
    r2 union all
    r3 union all
  = 1 union all
    2 union all
    3 union all
    4 union all
  = 1
    2
    3
    4

Answer 5

I think it breaks down like this:

1. The anchor statement is executed. This gives you a set of results, called the base set, or T0.

2. The recursive statement is executed, using T0 as the table to execute the query against. This happens automatically when you query a CTE.

3. If the recursive member returns some results, it creates a new set, T1. The recursive member is then executed again, using T1 as input, creating T2 if there are any results.

4. Step 3 continues until no more results are generated, OR the maximum number of recursions has been met, as set by the MAX_RECURSION option.

This page probably explains it best. It has a step-by-step walkthrough of the execution path of a CTE.