I have alphabet column like using this CTE:
;with
cte_tally as
(
select row_number() over (order by (select 1)) as n
from sys.all_columns
)
select
char(n) as alpha
from
cte_tally
where
(n > 64 and n < 91) ;
go
my question is how can I get range inside of this alphabet, I mean, if I create stored procedure who receive two parameters
@FirstLetter CHAR(1)
,@FinalLetter CHAR(2)
FirstLetter value is "C" FinalLetter value is "F"
First I want to know how many spaces are between C and F
And finally I want to create something like WHILE function using that spaces and all letters between C and F (including C and F)
DECLARE @NumberOfSpaces INT
,@FinalFlag INT = 1 ;
SET @NumberOfSpaces = spacesavailable
WHILE(@FinalFlag < NumberOfSpaces)
BEGIN
INSERT INTO .... VALUES (CONCAT(TEST - @FirstLetter))
END
and do that while with all letters between C and F (including C and F)
To create a range of letters you can use rangeAB (for this and a bunch of other stuff.) Observe:
DECLARE
@firstLetter CHAR(1) = 'C',
@lastLetter CHAR(1) = 'F';
SELECT letter = CHAR(r.N1)
FROM core.rangeAB(ASCII(@firstLetter),ASCII(@lastLetter),1,1) AS r;
Returns:
letter
------
C
D
E
F
If I understand what you need correctly, you can calculate "spaces" like this:
DECLARE
@firstLetter CHAR(1) = 'C',
@lastLetter CHAR(1) = 'F';
SELECT Spaces = ASCII(@lastLetter)-ASCII(@firstLetter);
This would indicate that there are 3 spaces between C & F. This may be moot.
RangeAB DDL:
CREATE FUNCTION core.rangeAB
(
@Low BIGINT, -- (start) Lowest number in the set
@High BIGINT, -- (stop) Highest number in the set
@Gap BIGINT, -- (step) Difference between each number in the set
@Row1 BIT -- Base: 0 or 1; should RN begin with 0 or 1?
)
/****************************************************************************************
[Purpose]:
Creates a lazy, in-memory, forward-ordered sequence of up to 531,441,000,000 integers
starting with @Low and ending with @High (inclusive). RangeAB is a pure, 100% set-based
alternative to solving SQL problems using iterative methods such as loops, cursors and
recursive CTEs. RangeAB is based on Itzik Ben-Gan's getnums function for producing a
sequence of integers and uses logic from Jeff Moden's fnTally function which includes a
parameter for determining if the "row-number" (RN) should begin with 0 or 1.
I wanted to use the name "Range" because it functions and performs almost identically to
the Range function built into Python and Clojure. RANGE is a reserved SQL keyword so I
went with "RangeAB". Functions/Algorithms developed using rangeAB can be easilty ported
over to Python, Clojure or any other programming language that leverages a lazy sequence.
The two major differences between RangeAB and the Python/Clojure versions are:
1. RangeAB is *Inclusive* where the other two are *Exclusive". range(0,3) in Python and
Clojure return [0 1 2], core.rangeAB(0,3) returns [0 1 2 3].
2. RangeAB has a fourth Parameter (@Row1) to determine if RN should begin with 0 or 1.
[Author]:
Alan Burstein
[Compatibility]:
SQL Server 2008+
[Syntax]:
SELECT r.RN, r.OP, r.N1, r.N2
FROM core.rangeAB(@Low,@High,@Gap,@Row1) AS r;
[Parameters]:
@Low = BIGINT; represents the lowest value for N1.
@High = BIGINT; represents the highest value for N1.
@Gap = BIGINT; represents how much N1 and N2 will increase each row. @Gap is also the
difference between N1 and N2.
@Row1 = BIT; represents the base (first) value of RN. When @Row1 = 0, RN begins with 0,
when @row = 1 then RN begins with 1.
[Returns]:
Inline Table Valued Function returns:
RN = BIGINT; a row number that works just like T-SQL ROW_NUMBER() except that it can
start at 0 or 1 which is dictated by @Row1. If you need the numbers:
(0 or 1) through @High, then use RN as your "N" value, ((@Row1=0 for 0, @Row1=1),
otherwise use N1.
OP = BIGINT; returns the "finite opposite" of RN. When RN begins with 0 the first number
in the set will be 0 for RN, the last number in will be 0 for OP. When returning the
numbers 1 to 10, 1 to 10 is retrurned in ascending order for RN and in descending
order for OP.
Given the Numbers 1 to 3, 3 is the opposite of 1, 2 the opposite of 2, and 1 is the
opposite of 3. Given the numbers -1 to 2, the opposite of -1 is 2, the opposite of 0
is 1, and the opposite of 1 is 0.
The best practie is to only use OP when @Gap > 1; use core.O instead. Doing so will
improve performance by 1-2% (not huge but every little bit counts)
N1 = BIGINT; This is the "N" in your tally table/numbers function. this is your *Lazy*
sequence of numbers starting at @Low and incrementing by @Gap until the next number
in the sequence is greater than @High.
N2 = BIGINT; a lazy sequence of numbers starting @Low+@Gap and incrementing by @Gap. N2
will always be greater than N1 by @Gap. N2 can also be thought of as:
LEAD(N1,1,N1+@Gap) OVER (ORDER BY RN)
[Dependencies]:
N/A
[Developer Notes]:
1. core.rangeAB returns one billion rows in exactly 90 seconds on my laptop:
4X 2.7GHz CPU's, 32 GB - multiple versions of SQL Server (2005-2019)
2. The lowest and highest possible numbers returned are whatever is allowable by a
bigint. The function, however, returns no more than 531,441,000,000 rows (8100^3).
3. @Gap does not affect RN, RN will begin at @Row1 and increase by 1 until the last row
unless its used in a subquery where a filter is applied to RN.
4. @Gap must be greater than 0 or the function will not return any rows.
5. Keep in mind that when @Row1 is 0 then the highest RN value (ROWNUMBER) will be the
number of rows returned minus 1
6. If you only need is a sequential set beginning at 0 or 1 then, for best performance
use the RN column. Use N1 and/or N2 when you need to begin your sequence at any
number other than 0 or 1 or if you need a gap between your sequence of numbers.
7. Although @Gap is a bigint it must be a positive integer or the function will
not return any rows.
8. The function will not return any rows when one of the following conditions are true:
* any of the input parameters are NULL
* @High is less than @Low
* @Gap is not greater than 0
To force the function to return all NULLs instead of not returning anything you can
add the following code to the end of the query:
UNION ALL
SELECT NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL
WHERE NOT (@High&@Low&@Gap&@Row1 IS NOT NULL AND @High >= @Low AND @Gap > 0)
This code was excluded as it adds a ~5% performance penalty.
9. There is no performance penalty for sorting by RN ASC; there is a large performance
penalty, however for sorting in descending order. If you need a descending sort the
use OP in place of RN then sort by rn ASC.
10. When setting the @Row1 to 0 and sorting by RN you will see that the 0 is added via
MERGE JOIN concatination. Under the hood the function is essentially concatinating
but, because it's using a MERGE JOIN operator instead of concatination the cost
estimations are needlessly high. You can circumvent this problem by changing:
ORDER BY core.rangeAB.RN to: ORDER BY ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL))
*** Best Practices ***
--===== 1. Using RN (rownumber)
-- (1.1) The best way to get the numbers 1,2,3...@High (e.g. 1 to 5):
SELECT r.RN
FROM core.rangeAB(1,5,1,1) AS r;
-- (1.2) The best way to get the numbers 0,1,2...@High (e.g. 0 to 5):
SELECT r.RN
FROM core.rangeAB(0,5,1,0) AS r;
--===== 2. Using OP for descending sorts without a performance penalty
-- (2.1) Best Practice for getting the numbers 5,4,3,2,1 (5 to 1):
SELECT r.OP
FROM core.rangeAB(1,5,1,1) AS r
ORDER BY R.RN;
-- (2.2) Best Practice for getting the numbers 5,4,3,2,1,0 (5 to 0):
SELECT r.OP
FROM core.rangeAB(0,5,1,0) AS r
ORDER BY r.RN ASC;
-- (2.3) (ADVANCED) - Ex 2.2. (above) but with better query plan estimations (compare both)
SELECT r.OP
FROM core.rangeAB(0,5,1,0) AS r
ORDER BY ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL));
-- This will leverage concatination operator instead of a merge join union;
-- This will not improve performance but the exection plan will include better estimations
;
-- (2.4) (ADVANCED) The BEST way (leveraging core.O)
SELECT o.OP
FROM core.rangeAB(0,5,1,0) AS r
CROSS APPLY core.O(0,5,r.RN) AS o
ORDER BY ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL));
-- Note that core.rangeAB.Op is best when there are gaps (@Gap > 1)
--===== 3. Using N1
-- (3.1) To begin with numbers other than 0 or 1 use N1 (e.g. -3 to 3):
SELECT r.N1
FROM core.rangeAB(-3,3,1,1) AS r;
-- (3.2) ROW_NUMBER() is built in. If you want a ROW_NUMBER() include RN:
SELECT r.RN, r.N1
FROM core.rangeAB(-3,3,1,1) AS r;
-- (3.3) If you wanted a ROW_NUMBER() that started at 0 you would do this:
SELECT r.RN, r.N1
FROM core.rangeAB(-3,3,1,0) AS r;
-- (3.4) Ex 3.3. Guaranteed ORDER BY without a sort in the execution plan
SELECT r.RN, r.N1
FROM core.rangeAB(-3,3,1,0) AS r
ORDER BY r.RN;
-- (3.5) Ex 3.4. But with better cost estimations (similar to ex 2.4)
SELECT r.RN, r.N1
FROM core.rangeAB(-3,3,1,0) AS r
ORDER BY ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL));
--===== 4. Using N2 and @Gap
-- (4.1) To get 0,10,20,30...100, set @Low to 0, @High to 100 and @Gap to 10:
SELECT r.N1
FROM core.rangeAB(0,100,10,1) AS r;
-- (4.2) Adding N2
-- Note that N2=N1+@Gap; this allows you to create a sequence of ranges.
-- For example, to get (0,10),(10,20),(20,30).... (90,100):
SELECT r.N1, r.N2
FROM core.rangeAB(0,90,10,1) AS r;
-- (4.3) Remember that a rownumber is included and it can begin at 0 or 1:
SELECT r.RN, r.N1, r.N2
FROM core.rangeAB(0,90,10,1) AS r;
[Examples]:
--===== 1. Generating Sample data (using rangeAB to create "dummy rows")
-- The query below will generate 10,000 ids and random numbers between 50,000 and 500,000
SELECT
someId = r.RN,
someNumer = ABS(CHECKSUM(NEWID())%450000)+50001
FROM core.rangeAB(1,10000,1,1) AS r;
--===== 2. Create a series of dates; rn is 0 to include the first date in the series
DECLARE @StartDate DATE = '20180101', @enddate DATE = '20180131';
SELECT r.RN, calDate = DATEADD(dd, r.RN, @StartDate)
FROM core.rangeAB(1, DATEDIFF(dd,@StartDate,@enddate),1,0) AS r;
GO
--===== 3. Splitting (tokenizing) a string with fixed sized items
-- given a delimited string of identifiers that are always 7 characters long
DECLARE @String VARCHAR(1000) = 'A601225,B435223,G008081,R678567';
SELECT
itemNumber = r.RN, -- item's ordinal position
itemIndex = r.N1, -- item's position in the string (it's CHARINDEX value)
item = SUBSTRING(@String, r.N1, 7) -- item (token)
FROM core.rangeAB(1, LEN(@String), 8,1) AS r;
GO
--===== 4. Splitting (tokenizing) a string with random delimiters
DECLARE @String VARCHAR(1000) = 'ABC123,999F,XX,9994443335';
SELECT
itemNumber = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY r.RN), -- item's ordinal position
itemIndex = r.N1+1, -- item's position in the string (it's CHARINDEX value)
item = SUBSTRING
(
@String,
r.N1+1,
ISNULL(NULLIF(CHARINDEX(',',@String,r.N1+1),0)-r.N1-1,8000)
) -- item (token)
FROM core.rangeAB(0,DATALENGTH(@String),1,1) AS r
WHERE SUBSTRING(@String,r.N1,1) = ',' OR r.N1 = 0;
-- logic borrowed from: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/
--===== 5. Grouping by a weekly intervals
-- 5.1. how to create a series of start/end dates between @StartDate & @endDate
DECLARE @StartDate DATE = '1/1/2015', @endDate DATE = '2/1/2015';
SELECT
WeekNbr = r.RN,
WeekStart = DATEADD(DAY,r.N1,@StartDate),
WeekEnd = DATEADD(DAY,r.N2-1,@StartDate)
FROM core.rangeAB(0,datediff(DAY,@StartDate,@EndDate),7,1) AS r;
GO
-- 5.2. LEFT JOIN to the weekly interval table
DECLARE @StartDate DATETIME = '1/1/2015', @endDate DATETIME = '2/1/2015';
BEGIN
-- sample data
DECLARE @loans TABLE (loID INT, lockDate DATE);
INSERT @loans
SELECT r.RN, DATEADD(DD, ABS(CHECKSUM(NEWID())%32), @StartDate)
FROM core.rangeAB(1,50,1,1) AS r;
-- solution
SELECT
WeekNbr = r.RN,
WeekStart = dt.WeekStart,
WeekEnd = dt.WeekEnd,
total = COUNT(l.lockDate)
FROM core.rangeAB(0,datediff(DAY,@StartDate,@EndDate),7,1) AS r
CROSS APPLY (VALUES (
CAST(DATEADD(DAY,r.N1,@StartDate) AS DATE),
CAST(DATEADD(DAY,r.N2-1,@StartDate) AS DATE))) dt(WeekStart,WeekEnd)
LEFT JOIN @loans l ON l.LockDate BETWEEN dt.WeekStart AND dt.WeekEnd
GROUP BY r.RN, dt.WeekStart, dt.WeekEnd ;
END;
--===== 6. Identify the first vowel and last vowel in a along with their positions
DECLARE @String VARCHAR(200) = 'This string has vowels';
BEGIN
SELECT TOP(1) Position = r.RN, Letter = SUBSTRING(@String,r.RN,1)
FROM core.rangeAB(1,LEN(@String),1,1) AS r
WHERE SUBSTRING(@String,r.RN,1) LIKE '%[aeiou]%'
ORDER BY r.RN;
-- To avoid a sort in the execution plan we'll use OP instead of RN
SELECT TOP(1) position = r.OP, letter = SUBSTRING(@String,r.OP,1)
FROM core.rangeAB(1,LEN(@String),1,1) AS r
WHERE SUBSTRING(@String,r.RN,1) LIKE '%[aeiou]%'
ORDER BY r.RN;
END;
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Revision History]:
Rev 00 - 20140518 - Initial Development - AJB
Rev 01 - 20151029 - Added 65 rows. Now L1=465; 465^3=100.5M. Updated comments - AJB
Rev 02 - 20180613 - Complete re-design including opposite number column (op)
Rev 03 - 20180920 - Added additional CROSS JOIN to L2 for 530B rows max - AJB
Rev 04 - 20190306 - Added inline aliasing function(f):
f.R=(@High-@Low)/@Gap, f.N=@Gap+@Low - AJB
Rev 05 - 20191122 - Developed this "core" version for open source distribution;
updated notes and did some final code clean-up
*****************************************************************************************/
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS RETURN
WITH
L1(N) AS
(
SELECT 1
FROM (VALUES
($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),
($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),
($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),
($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),
($),($)) T(N) -- 90 values
),
L2(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM L1 a CROSS JOIN L1 b CROSS JOIN L1 c),
iTally(RN) AS (SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT 1)) FROM L2 a CROSS JOIN L2 b)
SELECT r.RN, r.OP, r.N1, r.N2
FROM
(
SELECT
RN = 0,
OP = (@High-@Low)/@Gap,
N1 = @Low,
N2 = @Gap+@Low
WHERE @Row1 = 0
UNION ALL -- (@High-@Low)/@Gap+1:
SELECT TOP (ABS((ISNULL(@High,0)-ISNULL(@Low,0))/ISNULL(@Gap,0)+ISNULL(@Row1,1)))
RN = i.RN,
OP = (@High-@Low)/@Gap+(2*@Row1)-i.RN,
N1 = (i.rn-@Row1)*@Gap+@Low,
N2 = (i.rn-(@Row1-1))*@Gap+@Low
FROM iTally AS i
ORDER BY i.RN
) AS r
WHERE @High&@Low&@Gap&@Row1 IS NOT NULL AND @High >= @Low
AND @Gap > 0;