Find the columns values connectivity

Question

I have the following table with sample data:

Table: tbl_nodes

create table tbl_nodes
(
    nod1 varchar(50),
    nod2 varchar(50),
    n         


        

Answer 1

I'm pretty sure you need a recursive CTE. However, your sample results doesn't make sense.

The following basically does what you want:

with cte AS (
      select nod1, nod2, nod_length as Total_length,
             convert(varchar(max), concat('-', nod1, '-', nod2, '-')) as nodes, 1 as lev
      from tbl_nodes n
      where nod1 = 'A'
      union all
      select cte.nod1, n.nod2, cte.Total_length + n.nod_length,
             convert(varchar(max), concat(cte.nodes, n.nod2, '-')) as nodes, lev + 1
      from cte join
           tbl_nodes n
           on cte.nod2 = n.nod1
      where nodes not like concat('%-', n.nod2, '-%') 
     )
select nodes, total_length
from cte
where not exists (select 1
                  from cte cte2
                  where cte2.nodes like concat(cte.nodes, '_%')
                 );

Here is a db<>fiddle.