PostgreSQL Tutorial: Recursive Query

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn about the PostgreSQL recursive query using recursive common table expressions or CTEs.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the PostgreSQL recursive query

PostgreSQL provides the WITH statement that allows you to construct auxiliary statements for use in a query.

These statements are often referred to as common table expressions or CTEs. The CTEs are like temporary tables that exist only during the execution of the query.

A recursive query is a query that refers to a recursive CTE. The recursive queries are useful in many situations such as querying hierarchical data like organizational structure, bill of materials, etc.

The following illustrates the syntax of a recursive CTE:

WITH RECURSIVE cte_name AS(
    CTE_query_definition -- non-recursive term
    UNION [ALL]
    CTE_query definion  -- recursive term
) SELECT * FROM cte_name;

A recursive CTE has three elements:

• Non-recursive term: the non-recursive term is a CTE query definition that forms the base result set of the CTE structure.
• Recursive term: the recursive term is one or more CTE query definitions joined with the non-recursive term using the UNION or UNION ALL operator. The recursive term references the CTE name itself.
• Termination check: the recursion stops when no rows are returned from the previous iteration.

PostgreSQL executes a recursive CTE in the following sequence:

1. Execute the non-recursive term to create the base result set (R0).
2. Execute recursive term with Ri as an input to return the result set Ri+1 as the output.
3. Repeat step 2 until an empty set is returned. (termination check)
4. Return the final result set that is a UNION or UNION ALL of the result set R0, R1, … Rn

PostgreSQL recursive query example

We will create a new table to demonstrate the PostgreSQL recursive query.

CREATE TABLE employees (
	employee_id serial PRIMARY KEY,
	full_name VARCHAR NOT NULL,
	manager_id INT
);

The employees table has three columns: employee_id, manager_id, and full_name. The manager_id column specifies the manager id of an employee.

The following statement inserts sample data into the employees table.

INSERT INTO employees (
	employee_id,
	full_name,
	manager_id
)
VALUES
	(1, 'Michael North', NULL),
	(2, 'Megan Berry', 1),
	(3, 'Sarah Berry', 1),
	(4, 'Zoe Black', 1),
	(5, 'Tim James', 1),
	(6, 'Bella Tucker', 2),
	(7, 'Ryan Metcalfe', 2),
	(8, 'Max Mills', 2),
	(9, 'Benjamin Glover', 2),
	(10, 'Carolyn Henderson', 3),
	(11, 'Nicola Kelly', 3),
	(12, 'Alexandra Climo', 3),
	(13, 'Dominic King', 3),
	(14, 'Leonard Gray', 4),
	(15, 'Eric Rampling', 4),
	(16, 'Piers Paige', 7),
	(17, 'Ryan Henderson', 7),
	(18, 'Frank Tucker', 8),
	(19, 'Nathan Ferguson', 8),
	(20, 'Kevin Rampling', 8);

The following query returns all subordinates of the manager with the id 2.

WITH RECURSIVE subordinates AS (
	SELECT
		employee_id,
		manager_id,
		full_name
	FROM
		employees
	WHERE
		employee_id = 2
	UNION
		SELECT
			e.employee_id,
			e.manager_id,
			e.full_name
		FROM
			employees e
		INNER JOIN subordinates s ON s.employee_id = e.manager_id
) SELECT
	*
FROM
	subordinates;

How it works:

• The recursive CTE, subordinates, defines one non-recursive term and one recursive term.
• The non-recursive term returns the base result set R0 that is the employee with the id 2.

 employee_id | manager_id |  full_name
-------------+------------+-------------
           2 |          1 | Megan Berry

The recursive term returns the direct subordinate(s) of the employee id 2. This is the result of joining between the employees table and the subordinates CTE. The first iteration of the recursive term returns the following result set:

 employee_id | manager_id |    full_name
-------------+------------+-----------------
           6 |          2 | Bella Tucker
           7 |          2 | Ryan Metcalfe
           8 |          2 | Max Mills
           9 |          2 | Benjamin Glover

PostgreSQL executes the recursive term repeatedly. The second iteration of the recursive member uses the result set above step as the input value, and returns this result set:

 employee_id | manager_id |    full_name
-------------+------------+-----------------
          16 |          7 | Piers Paige
          17 |          7 | Ryan Henderson
          18 |          8 | Frank Tucker
          19 |          8 | Nathan Ferguson
          20 |          8 | Kevin Rampling

The third iteration returns an empty result set because there is no employee reporting to the employee with the id 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20.

PostgreSQL returns the final result set that is the union of all result sets in the first and second iterations generated by the non-recursive and recursive terms.

 employee_id | manager_id |    full_name
-------------+------------+-----------------
           2 |          1 | Megan Berry
           6 |          2 | Bella Tucker
           7 |          2 | Ryan Metcalfe
           8 |          2 | Max Mills
           9 |          2 | Benjamin Glover
          16 |          7 | Piers Paige
          17 |          7 | Ryan Henderson
          18 |          8 | Frank Tucker
          19 |          8 | Nathan Ferguson
          20 |          8 | Kevin Rampling
(10 rows)

In this tutorial, you have learned how to use the recursive CTEs to construct the PostgreSQL recursive queries.