Cycle detection with recursive subquery factoring

Oracle SQL can do hierarchical queries since v2, using their proprietary CONNECT BY syntax. In their latest 11g release 2, they added recursive subquery factoring, also known as the recursive with clause. This is the ANSI standard, and if I understand correctly, this one has been implemented by other RDBMS vendors as well.

When comparing the connect-by with the recursive with, I noticed a difference in the result set when using cycle detection. The connect by results are more intuitive to me, so I'm wondering if Oracle's implementation contains a bug, or if this is standard ANSI and expected behaviour. Therefore my question is if you can check the recursive with query using other databases like MySQL, DB2, SQL Server and others. Provided those databases support the recursive with clause of course.

Here is how it works on Oracle 11.2.0.1.0

SQL> select *
  2    from t
  3  /

        ID  PARENT_ID
---------- ----------
         1          2
         2          1

2 rows selected.

The query using CONNECT BY syntax:

SQL>  select id
  2        , parent_id
  3        , connect_by_iscycle
  4     from t
  5  connect by nocycle parent_id = prior id
  6    start with id = 1
  7  /

        ID  PARENT_ID CONNECT_BY_ISCYCLE
---------- ---------- ------------------
         1          2                  0
         2          1                  1

2 rows selected.

Which looks intuitive to me. However, using the new ANSI syntax it returns one more row:

SQL> with tr (id,parent_id) as
  2  ( select id
  3         , parent_id
  4      from t
  5     where id = 1
  6     union all
  7    select t.id
  8         , t.parent_id
  9      from t
 10           join tr on t.parent_id = tr.id
 11  ) cycle id set is_cycle to '1' default '0'
 12  select id
 13       , parent_id
 14       , is_cycle
 15    from tr
 16  /

        ID  PARENT_ID I
---------- ---------- -
         1          2 0
         2          1 0
         1          2 1

3 rows selected.

This is the script you can use to check:

create table t
( id        number
, parent_id number
);
insert into t values (1, 2);
insert into t values (2, 1);
commit;
with tr (id,parent_id) as
( select id
       , parent_id
    from t
   where id = 1
   union all
  select t.id
       , t.parent_id
    from t
         join tr on t.parent_id = tr.id
) cycle id set is_cycle to '1' default '0'
select id
     , parent_id
     , is_cycle
  from tr;

From documentation on CONNECT_BY_ISCYCLE:

The CONNECT_BY_ISCYCLE pseudocolumn returns 1 if the current row has a child which is also its ancestor

and that on CYCLE:

A row is considered to form a cycle if one of its ancestor rows has the same values for the cycle columns.

In your example, row 2 does have a child which is also its ancestor, but its id has not been returned yet.

In other words, CONNECT_BY_ISCYCLE checks the children (which are yet to be returned), while CYCLE checks the current row (which is already returned).

CONNECT BY is row based, while recursive CTE's are set-based.

Note that Oracle's documentation on CYCLE mentions an "ancestor row". However, generally speaking, there is no concept of an "ancestor row" in a recursive CTE. It's a set based operation which can yield results completely out of the tree. Generally speaking, the anchor part and the recursive part can even use the different tables.

Since recursive CTE's are usually used to build hierarchy trees, Oracle decided to add a cycle check. But due the set-based way the recursive CTE's operate, it's generally impossible to tell will the next step generate a cycle or not, because without a clear definition of the "ancestor row" cycle condition cannot be defined either.

To perform the "next" step, the whole "current" set needs to be available, but to generate each row of the current set (which includes the cycle column) we just need to have the results of the "next" operation.

It's not a problem if the current set always consists of a single row (like in CONNECT BY), but it is a problem if the recursive operation defined on a set as a whole.

Didn't look into Oracle 11 yet, but SQL Server implements recursive CTE's by just hiding a CONNECT BY behind them, which requires placing numerous restrictions (all of which effectively forbid all set-based operations).

PostgreSQL's implementation, on the other hand, is truly set-based: you can do any operation with the anchor part in the recursive part. It does not have any means to detect cycles, though, because cycles are not defined in the first place.

As was mentioned before, MySQL does not implement CTE's at all (it does not implement HASH JOIN's or MERGE JOINs as well, only the nested loops, so don't be surprised much).

Ironically, I received a letter today on this very subject, which I will cover in my blog.

Update:

Recursive CTE's in SQL Server are no more than CONNECT BY in disguise. See this article in my blog for shocking details:

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