Select statement to return parent and infinite children

Question

Give the table structure, as something like:

ID      ParentID      Name
1       NULL          A root
2       NULL          Another root
3       1             Child of 1
4       3                Grandchild of 1
5       4                   Great grandchild of 1
6       1             Child of 1
7       NULL          Another root
8       7             Child of 6

I am looking for an elegant (if possible) solution for a single Sql statement/function that would return all data in the table when given an ID = 1

So my result would look something like:

ID      ParentID      Name
1       NULL          A root
3       1             Child of 1
4       3                Grandchild of 1
5       4                   Great grandchild of 1
6       1             Child of 1

I've seen similar questions on SO though for the most part they only seem to be looking at a given number of levels.

This structure can, ultimately, be limitless - folder with children, with many other children

Is this possible? If so, how would I accomplish it?

Answer 1

So referencing this answer:

Sql Server CTE Parent Child recursive

Here's a working version with your schema:

Table Creation Script

CREATE TABLE YOUR_TABLE
    ([ID] int, [ParentID] int, [Name] varchar(21))
;

INSERT INTO YOUR_TABLE
    ([ID], [ParentID], [Name])
VALUES
    (1, NULL, 'A root'),
    (2, NULL, 'Another root'),
    (3, 1, 'Child of 1'),
    (4, 3, 'Grandchild of 1'),
    (5, 4, 'Great grandchild of 1'),
    (6, 1, 'Child of 1'),
    (7, NULL, 'Another root'),
    (8, 7, 'Child of 6')
;

Recursive CTE

DECLARE @ID INT = 1

;WITH ParentChildCTE
AS (
    SELECT ID, ParentId, Name        
    FROM YOUR_TABLE
    WHERE Id = @ID

    UNION ALL

    SELECT T1.ID, T1.ParentId, T1.Name        
    FROM YOUR_TABLE T1
    INNER JOIN ParentChildCTE T ON T.ID = T1.ParentID
    WHERE T1.ParentID IS NOT NULL
    )
SELECT *
FROM ParentChildCTE

The key part is in the CTE creation where the UNION ALL joins back on to the result set, joining ID to ParentId, which doesn't limit the number of level.

Answer 2

What you need is a recursive query. This Microsoft Technet example does exactly what you want, though in the example, we're going for a hierarchy of employees, not folders.

From the linked page:

-- Create an Employee table.
CREATE TABLE dbo.MyEmployees
(
EmployeeID smallint NOT NULL,
FirstName nvarchar(30)  NOT NULL,
LastName  nvarchar(40) NOT NULL,
Title nvarchar(50) NOT NULL,
DeptID smallint NOT NULL,
ManagerID int NULL,
 CONSTRAINT PK_EmployeeID PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (EmployeeID ASC) 
);
-- Populate the table with values.
INSERT INTO dbo.MyEmployees VALUES 
 (1, N'Ken', N'Sánchez', N'Chief Executive Officer',16,NULL)
,(273, N'Brian', N'Welcker', N'Vice President of Sales',3,1)
,(274, N'Stephen', N'Jiang', N'North American Sales Manager',3,273)
,(275, N'Michael', N'Blythe', N'Sales Representative',3,274)
,(276, N'Linda', N'Mitchell', N'Sales Representative',3,274)
,(285, N'Syed', N'Abbas', N'Pacific Sales Manager',3,273)
,(286, N'Lynn', N'Tsoflias', N'Sales Representative',3,285)
,(16,  N'David',N'Bradley', N'Marketing Manager', 4, 273)
,(23,  N'Mary', N'Gibson', N'Marketing Specialist', 4, 16);

and then

WITH DirectReports (ManagerID, EmployeeID, Title, DeptID, Level)
AS
(
-- Anchor member definition
    SELECT e.ManagerID, e.EmployeeID, e.Title, edh.DepartmentID, 
        0 AS Level
    FROM dbo.MyEmployees AS e
    INNER JOIN HumanResources.EmployeeDepartmentHistory AS edh
        ON e.EmployeeID = edh.BusinessEntityID AND edh.EndDate IS NULL
    WHERE ManagerID IS NULL
    UNION ALL
-- Recursive member definition
    SELECT e.ManagerID, e.EmployeeID, e.Title, edh.DepartmentID,
        Level + 1
    FROM dbo.MyEmployees AS e
    INNER JOIN HumanResources.EmployeeDepartmentHistory AS edh
        ON e.EmployeeID = edh.BusinessEntityID AND edh.EndDate IS NULL
    INNER JOIN DirectReports AS d
        ON e.ManagerID = d.EmployeeID
)
-- Statement that executes the CTE
SELECT ManagerID, EmployeeID, Title, DeptID, Level
FROM DirectReports
INNER JOIN HumanResources.Department AS dp
    ON DirectReports.DeptID = dp.DepartmentID
WHERE dp.GroupName = N'Sales and Marketing' OR Level = 0;
GO

and your result is

ManagerID EmployeeID Title                         Level
--------- ---------- ----------------------------- ------
NULL      1          Chief Executive Officer       0
1         273        Vice President of Sales       1
273       16         Marketing Manager             2
273       274        North American Sales Manager  2
273       285        Pacific Sales Manager         2
16        23         Marketing Specialist          3
274       275        Sales Representative          3
274       276        Sales Representative          3
285       286        Sales Representative          3