Question

Tricky SQl needs simplifying and Im too simple

Asked by: sebastiz

I have a SQL statment that runs against a MySQL 4.0 from a crystal report (XI). The report runs slowly and I think its because the SQL is too complicated. Can anyone help to simplify it. The table structure is below the query

SELECT User.FullName,User_1.FullName, Task.TaskID, Task.SecretaryID, Task.TimePosted, Task.TimeAccepted, Task.TimeReturned, Task.TimeCompleted, Task.NumLines, Customer.CustomerID, Secretary.SecretaryID
FROM User AS User_1
 INNER JOIN (
((User INNER JOIN Customer ON User.UserID = Customer.UserID)
INNER JOIN Secretary ON Customer.CustomerID = Secretary.CustomerID)
INNER JOIN Task ON Secretary.SecretaryID = Task.SecretaryID)
ON User_1.UserID = Secretary.UserID;

Table:USER1

UserID -PK
FullName

Table:USER

UserID   -PK
FullName


Table:CUSTOMER

CustomerID  -PK
UserID

Table:SECRETARY

SecretaryID  -PK
UserID
CustomerID

Table:TASK

TaskID   -PK
SecretaryID
TimePosted
TimeAccepted
TimeReturned
TimeCompleted
NumLines


Please help as the clients are baying for my blood.....

Seb

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Asked On
2008-05-17 at 16:42:33ID23411239
Tags

SQL

Topics

MySQL Server

,

Crystal Reports Software

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
9

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Answers

 

by: routinetPosted on 2008-05-17 at 18:02:59ID: 21591243

Please explain a little about the nature of your table relationships and the goal of the query.  Also, post the results of EXPLAIN for this query.

 

by: mlmccPosted on 2008-05-17 at 22:07:34ID: 21591630

Are you trying to get the secretary's name as the master table?

mlmcc

 

by: sebastizPosted on 2008-05-18 at 01:10:30ID: 21591909

So the aim of the query is to get a report that details which tasks were done by which member of which customer (the customer is a company).
The user is related to user 1 as a many user1 to one user relationship
user-customer is a one to one relationship
customer to secretary is a many secretaries to one customer relationship.
Secretary to task is a many tasks to one secretaries relationship

Im not sure that I can get an EXPLAIN statement for the SQL

Does this help?

Seb

 

by: routinetPosted on 2008-05-18 at 14:06:33ID: 21594030

I think you have made your relationships a little too complicated.  What is the difference between a company and a user?  If they are a 1-1 relationship, what is the reasoning behind separating the data?

Each customer (a company, or YOUR customer) has a user account (1-1 relation).  Each customer has a number of secretaries (1-many).  Each secretary can have a number of tasks (1-many).  So why are you relating secretary to the user?  By your description, the user should be dependent only on the company, or vice versa.

Given what you've described, you have a task that was completed by a secretary.  That secretary is a child of a customer, which should also yield the user.  In the secretary table, you also relate it directly to the user...why?  The query below reflects how I understand the relationships.  Please explain further regarding the nature of the relationship between Customer and User.

SELECT * FROM Task a INNER JOIN Secretary b ON a.SecretaryID=b.SecretaryID INNER JOIN Customer c ON b.CustomerID=c.CustomerID INNER JOIN User d ON c.UserID=d.UserID

 

by: sebastizPosted on 2008-05-19 at 11:42:53ID: 21600396

The user table contains the fullName of every user, whether they are a customer or a secretary. I want to group all the tasks done by each secretaries (listed by name- an attribute of the user table) under each customer (and list the customer name, which I can only get from the user table). How do I get the secretary fullName from the User table which I have already used?

Seb

 

by: mlmccPosted on 2008-05-19 at 17:50:14ID: 21602725

Simply add it a second time to the query and join it on the secretary field

What do you want the report to show?

What grouping?

That should drive the query and the order of the tables.

mlmcc

 

by: routinetPosted on 2008-05-19 at 19:46:03ID: 21603266

I understand now.  I disagree with using the user table to show customer name, since you equate a customer with a company, but the relationship makes more sense.  Try this:

SELECT user_sec.FullName,user_cust.FullName, Task.TaskID, Task.SecretaryID, Task.TimePosted,
             Task.TimeAccepted,Task.TimeReturned,Task.TimeCompleted,Task.NumLines,Customer.CustomerID,
             Secretary.SecretaryID
FROM Task INNER JOIN Secretary ON Task.SecretaryID=Secretary.SecretaryID
                  INNER JOIN Customer ON Customer.CustomerID=Secretary.CustomerID
                  INNER JOIN User user_sec ON Secretary.UserID=user_sec.UserID
                  INNER JOIN User user_cust ON Customer.UserID=user_cust.UserID

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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