Using Recursive Common table expressions to represent Tree structures

A very long time ago, we wrote an article on how to use PostgreSQL to show the fully qualified name of an item in an inventory tree. Basically we were modeling a paper products tree. The original article can be found here Using PostgreSQL User-Defined Functions to solve the Tree Problem and was based on PostgreSQL 7.4 technology.

We'll repeat the text here for completeness and demonstrate the PostgreSQL 8.4 that solves this and more efficiently.

The Problem

Suppose you are tracking supplies and have a field called si_item and another called si_parentid. The parent keeps track of what subclass a supply item belongs to. E.g. you have paper parent that has subclasses such as recycled, non-recycled. When someone takes supplies, you want to return the fully qualified name e.g. Paper->Recycled->20 Lb

Below is what the structure of your table looks like.

si_id int, si_parentid int, si_item. In your table are the following entries

si_id	si_parentid	si_item
1		Paper
2	1	Recycled
3	2	20 lb
4	2	40 lb
5	1	Non-Recycled
6	5	20 lb
7	5	40 lb
8	5	Scraps

Solution

CREATE TABLE supplyitem(si_id integer PRIMARY KEY, si_parentid integer, si_item varchar(100));

--load up the table (multirow constructor introduced in 8.2)
INSERT INTO supplyitem(si_id,si_parentid, si_item)
VALUES (1, NULL, 'Paper'),
(2,1, 'Recycled'),
(3,2, '20 lb'),
(4,2, '40 lb'),
(5,1, 'Non-Recycled'),
(6,5, '20 lb'),
(7,5, '40 lb'),
(8,5, 'Scraps');

--Recursive query (introduced in 8.4 returns fully qualified name)
WITH RECURSIVE supplytree AS
(SELECT si_id, si_item, si_parentid, CAST(si_item As varchar(1000)) As si_item_fullname
FROM supplyitem
WHERE si_parentid IS NULL
UNION ALL
SELECT si.si_id,si.si_item,
	si.si_parentid,
	CAST(sp.si_item_fullname || '->' || si.si_item As varchar(1000)) As si_item_fullname
FROM supplyitem As si
	INNER JOIN supplytree AS sp
	ON (si.si_parentid = sp.si_id)
)
SELECT si_id, si_item_fullname
FROM supplytree
ORDER BY si_item_fullname;

Result looks like

si_id |      si_item_fullname
------+-----------------------------
 1    | Paper
 5    | Paper->Non-Recycled
 6    | Paper->Non-Recycled->20 lb
 7    | Paper->Non-Recycled->40 lb
 8    | Paper->Non-Recycled->Scraps
 2    | Paper->Recycled
 3    | Paper->Recycled->20 lb
 4    | Paper->Recycled->40 lb