How do the fields in "SHOW COLUMNS" command map to specific tables? - mysql

Here is a View called viewwithcommonfield :
SELECT
`schematopologytest01`.`talpha`.`CommonField` AS `CommonField_tAlpha`,
`schematopologytest01`.`tbeta`.`CommonField` AS `CommonField_tBeta`
FROM
(`schematopologytest01`.`talpha`
JOIN `schematopologytest01`.`tbeta`)
When I execute
SHOW FULL fields FROM viewwithcommonfield IN SchemaTopologyTest01
I get this:
How do I map the fields back to specific tables? Can I write a view against the tables in information_schema?
Here are the table structures that are referenced in the view. The tables share a common field called CommonField:

No, there is no metadata available to map views of a column back to the original column in a base table. That would require multiple tables, because any given expression in the select-list may reference multiple columns from different tables.
Consider:
SELECT CONCAT(
`schematopologytest01`.`talpha`.`AlphaFieldA`,
`schematopologytest01`.`tbeta`.`BetaFieldE`) AS `ConcatenatedField`
FROM `schematopologytest01`.`talpha`
JOIN `schematopologytest01`.`tbeta` ON ...
Which table and column would ConcatenatedField list as its origin? It would have to be stored in two rows of another INFORMATION_SCHEMA table.
There are also select-list expressions possible in a view that don't reference any base table:
CREATE VIEW ViewNow AS SELECT NOW() AS `now`;
What about columns that are themselves scalar subqueries? Or references to stored functions? Or an aggregate function like COUNT() or SUM() where the value is not found in any base table?
Many views do not derive their data from base tables deterministically at all. Edit: What I mean is that it's not always possible to know which rows or columns are the source of data in a view, because they results are combined in some ways. It's probably more clear to say that reversing the query to get the original data is not always possible, depending on the query.
It's not possible to update those views. But if there were metadata about where the data "came from," there would have to be something in the metadata to indicate that. It would be impractical because it would be complex, and have little value.

Related

Filtering a query by another query while allowing record input

I have 2 queries. A, B.
Query A has several columns of data and B has only 1 column. When I link A & B I get exactly what I want (filtered records of A).
However, I still do want to input new data into the query, how do I do this?
Ok then :)
Question was how to make a query with JOINs updateable.
See: Dealing with Non-Updateable Microsoft Access Queries and the Use of Temporary Tables
Reasons why a Query or Recordset is not Updateable
There are many reasons why your data may not be updateable. Some are
pretty obvious:
The query is a Totals query (uses GROUP BY) or Crosstab query (uses TRANSFORM), so the records aren't individual records
The field is a calculated field, so it can't be edited
You don't have permissions/rights to edit the table or database
The query uses VBA functions or user defined functions and the database isn't enabled (trusted) to allow code to run
Some reasons are less obvious but can't be avoided:
Linked tables without a primary key for certain backend databases (e.g. SQL Server). Access/Jet requires the table to be keyed to make
any changes. This makes sense since Access wants to issue a SQL query
for modifications but can't uniquely identify the record.
Less obvious are these situations:
Queries with some fields are summaries linked to individual records and the individual records still can't be edited
Queries with multi-table joins that aren't on key fields
Union queries
Another resource: http://allenbrowne.com/ser-61.html

Shortcut for aliasing many columns on multiple joins?

My first mySQL project.
I am migrating a FileMaker DB to mySQL and having trouble with how to efficiently handle duplicate field (column) names from 3 left joined tables, combined with the fact that each table is supplying a large number of columns (50+). I understand the concept of aliasing columns. Is there a better way than to create several hundred alias lines to handle each column from each table? I've searched the site and not found a discussion of handling a large number of columns, which is common in FileMaker DBs...perhaps not in mySQL.
Current code is below, where I created the aliases for only ONE (WebPublish) of the ~50 fields for each of the 3 joined tables:
$query = "SELECT
Artwork.WebPublish as Artwork_WebPublish,
Artist.WebPublish as Artist_WebPublish,
Location.WebPublish as Location_WebPublish
FROM Review
LEFT JOIN Artwork ON Review._kf_ArtworkID = Artwork.__kp_ArtworkID
LEFT JOIN Artist ON Review._kf_ArtistID = Artist.__kp_ArtistID
LEFT JOIN Location ON Review._kf_LocationID = Location.__kp_LocationID
WHERE __kp_ReviewID = ?";
This query produces the desired response for one column from each joined table:
Array
(
[Artwork_WebPublish] => Yes
[Artist_WebPublish] => No
[Location_WebPublish] => Maybe
)
The question is whether I need to expand the aliases the long way to include 49 times more data.
Thanks for you help.
No, there's no SQL syntax for giving column aliases in a "batch" mode, for example applying the table name as a prefix to all columns (by the way, SQLite does support that feature by default).
One way to solve this is to refer to columns by ordinal position instead of by name, in whatever language you use to fetch the results.
Another solution is to define your tables with distinct column names so you avoid the name conflict. Some SQL identifiers, for example constraint names, are already required to be unique within the database they reside in, not only unique within a table. It may be a naming convention you want to use to apply the same rule to column names.

Dynamic Condition Objects

In BO XI 3.1, is it possible to create a condition object that filters on multiple tables, without adding all of those tables to the query if they weren't already present?
For example, if I have several tables which all contain both current and historical data, and each table has a flag to indicate if the record is current or historical - can I create a single "Current Data" condition that filters all of such tables to pull only current data? The catch would be that the query might not be selecting from all of these tables, and I don't want the inclusion of the condition to add joins to tables I'm not selecting from.
In other words, can a condition check which tables are being used by the query and apply filters only on those tables?
You could add a self-restricting join to each of those tables, and use an #prompt function to ask whether to return current data or historical data. If you use the same text and same datatype for all of the prompts in each self-restricting join, the prompt will only be shown once, and will only be applied to the tables that are actually used in the generated query.
The self-restricting join could look something like:
<table>.<history_flag>
= #Prompt('Select current or historical data','A',{'C','H'}, Mono, constrained, , {'C'})
In the above example, we assume that the flag is an alphanumeric column (A) with values C or H ({'C','H'}). The user is only allowed to pick from these two values (constrained) and only one value can be chosen (Mono). The default choice is set to current data ({'C'}).
Have a look at the Universe Designer guide for the #prompt syntax. Self-restricting joins are explained in the same manual.

Joining a table stored within a column of the results

I want to try and keep this as one query and not use PHP, but it's proving to be tough.
I have a table called applications, that stores all the applications and some basic information about them.
Then, I have a table with all the types of applications in it, and that table contains a reference to another table which stores more specific data about the specific type of application in question.
select applications.id as appid, applications.category, type.title as type, type.id as tid, type.valuefld, type.tablename
from applications
left join type on applications.typeid=type.id
left join department on type.deptid=department.id
where not isnull(work_cat)
and work_cat != ''
and applications.deleted=0
and datei between '10-04-14' and '11-04-14'
order by type, work_cat
Now, in the old version, there is another query on every single result. Over hundreds of results... that sucks.
This is the query I'd like to integrate so I can get all the data in one result row. (Old is ASP, I'm re-writing it in PHP)
query = "select sum("&adors.fields("valuefld")&") as cost, description from "&adors.fields("tablename")&" where appid = '"&adors.fields("tablename")&"'"
Prepared statements, I'm aware, are the best solution, but for now they are not an option.
You can't do this with a plain SQL query - you need to have a defined set of tables that your query is based on. The fact that your current implementation queries from whatever table is named by tablename from the first result-set means that to get this all in one query, you will have to restructure your data. You have to know what tables you're querying from rather than having it dynamic.
If the reason for these different tables is the different information stored in each requiring different record (column) structures, you might want to look into Key/Value pair storage in a large table. Once you combine the dynamically named ones into a single location you can integrate your two queries together.

Advantage of using Views in MySQL

I've learned that views can be used to create custom "table views" (so to say) that aggregate related data from multiple tables.
My question is: what are the advantages of views? Specifically, let's say I have two tables:
event | eid, typeid, name
eventtype | typeid, max_team_members
Now I create a view:
eventdetails | event.eid, event.name, eventtype.max_team_members
| where event.typeid=eventtype.typeid
Now if I want to maximum number of members allowed in a team for some event, I could:
use the view
do a join query (or maybe a stored procedure).
What would be my advantages/disadvantages in each method?
Another query: if data in table events and eventtypes gets updated, is there any overhead involved in updating the data in the view (considering it caches resultant data)?
A view is not stored separately: when you query a view, the view is replaced with the definition of that view. So and changes to the data in the tables will show up immediately via the view.
In addition to the security feature pointed out earlier:
If you're writing a large number of queries that would perform that join, it factors out that SQL code. Like doing some operations in a function used in several places, it can make your code easier to read/write/debug.
It would also allow you to change how the join is performed in the future in one place. Perhaps a 1-to-many relationship could become a many-to-many relationship, introducing an extra table in the join. Or you may decide to denormalize and include all of the eventtype fields in each event record so that you don't have to join each time (trading space for query execution time).
You could further split tables later, changing it to a 3-way join, and other queries using the view wouldn't have to be rewritten.
You could add new columns to the table(s) and change the view to leave out the new columns so that some older queries using "select *" don't break when you change the table definitions.
You can restrict users to the view instead of the underlying table(s), thereby enhancing security.
Advantages of SQL Views
1). You can save a complex query(a query with join multiple tables) as view to reuse it in simple manners.
In other words, you can change your multi-line query into single-line query.
2). You can hide sensitive data by converting your query into view with new name and can give the access only required columns instead of giving the access of actual table.