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Is it possible to save a value returned from a subquery and then use it in the same SQL statement to avoid repeating the subquery?

I am trying to do something like this:
Select t1.employee, t1.HOURS_1,
(select sum(t2.HOURS_2) from TABLE2 t2 where t2.employee = t1.employee and condition2 = CONDITION) as HOURS_2,
(t1.HOURS_1 + (select sum(t2.HOURS_2) from TABLE2 t2 where t2.employee = t1.employee and condition2 = CONDITION)) as HOURS_3
from TABLE1 t1
where condition1 = CONDITION1

I want to avoid repeating the same subquery (select sum(t2.HOURS_2) from TABLE2 t2 where t2.employee = t1.employee and condition2 = CONDITION)
multiple times in the real query (which is more complex than the one shown.

So I tried to use variable like this:
Declare
Var_hours NUMBER;
Begin
Select t1.employee, t1.HOURS_1,
(select sum(t2.HOURS_2) INTO Var_hours from TABLE2 t2 where t2.employee = t1.employee and condition2 = CONDITION) as HOURS_2,
(t1.HOURS_1 + Var_hours) as HOURS_3
from TABLE1 t1
where condition1 = CONDITION1
End;

But I got Oracle error PL/SQL: ORA-01744: inappropriate INTO caused by the rule that The INTO clause may not be used in a subquery.

Is it possible to somehow write SQL statement or SQL block that would save a value returned from a subquery in order to avoid repeating the same subquery multiple times?
Thank you in advance!

Lee Wadwell

Hi pavelmed,

Have you tried re-writing the query to avoid sub-queries? e.g.
Select t1.employee, t1.HOURS_1,
sum(t2.HOURS_2) as HOURS_2,
t1.HOURS_1 + sum(t2.HOURS_2) as HOURS_3
from TABLE1 t1
LEFT JOIN TABLE2 t2
ON t2.employee = t1.employee and condition2 = "CONDITION"
where condition1 = "CONDITION1"
GROUP BY t1.employee, t1.HOURS_1

lwadwell

pavelmed

ASKER

Hi lwadwell,
I tried your suggestion, but got SQL errors mostly such as "not a group by expression".
I think it's because the "group by" should apply to the whole statement, while I tried tom apply it to a singe table

Lee Wadwell

pavelmed,

can you show the SQL you tried? The group by should apply to all columns being returned that are not being SUM()'d.

lwadwell

Geert G

use something like this:

with X as (subquery)
select *, (select A from X where X.B = .B) from Y

with X as 
  (select t2.employee, sum(t2.HOURS_2) HOURS_2 from TABLE2 t2 where condition2 = 'CONDITION2' group by t2.employee)
Select t1.employee, t1.HOURS_1, X.HOURS_2,
  (t1.HOURS_1 + X.HOURS_2) as HOURS_3
from TABLE1 t1, X t2
where t1.condition1 = 'CONDITION1'
  and t1.employee = t2.employee

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Geert G

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pavelmed

ASKER

Geert Gruwez and lwadwell,

Thank you very much for your suggestions.
While lwadwell's suggestion was interesting, it did not fit well for my needs - I had in fact 6 different SUMs with different criteria to calculate, and to use "Group By" for each of them in one single statement would be very difficult or impossible.

But I was able to do what I needed by using the "WITH" clause - the Geert Gruwez's suggestion perfectly fit my needs, therefore I give my points to Geert Gruwez. Thanks a lot!.

Again, thank you very much for your help.