Multi level hierarchy relationship

Question

My table design is

users (id, username..., parent_id)

Data is

id    username      parent_id
-------------------------------
1  |  admin       | null
2  |  reseller 1  | 1
3  |  client 1    | 1
4  |  reseller 2  | 1
5  |  reseller 3  | 2
6  |  reseller 4  | 2
7  |  client 2    | 5
8  |  client 3    | 6

I want to get all descendants of id 1

I studied Adjacency List, Nested List & Closure table design, but came to conclusion that Session based Adjacency List can be better in my situation.

I found an example at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8104187/hierarchical-queries-in-mysql

SELECT  @id :=
        (
        SELECT  senderid
        FROM    mytable
        WHERE   receiverid = @id
        ) AS person
FROM    (
        SELECT  @id := 5
        ) vars
STRAIGHT_JOIN
        mytable
WHERE   @id IS NOT NULL

I tried to modify this query to get my result like this

SELECT  group_concat(@id :=
        (
        SELECT  id
        FROM    users
        WHERE   parent_id = @id
        )) AS u
FROM    (
        SELECT  @id := 1
        ) vars
STRAIGHT_JOIN
        users
WHERE   @id IS NOT NULL

But it is not working. Here is the SQLFiddle

Need help in making the query work.

Answer 1

The query in the linked answer is a "hack" as the OP there clearly describes in a comment and can stop working any time with a MySQL upgrade as the exact behaviour of session variables is not documented.

Aside from that, the question there was about finding all ancestors, not all descendants. In adjacency lists, a node has maximum one parent but possibly many children. So this query/hack will not work in your case.

The Adjacency List model is the simplest of all hierarchy models in SQL. The other 3 (Nested Sets, Evaluated Path, Closure Table) are more complicated because - in a way - store redundant information. In exchange, some queries are far more easier to write. In any of the other 3 models, the solution would be really simple and wouldn't need a recursive query.

So, it seems you have two options:

• either evaluate your decision to use the Adjacency List model and use a different one (or a combination of models)
• write a procedure / function that solves the issue. @RolandoDBA has an old answer on this site, that provides several procedures that solve this (and related) problems. I'm not sure how efficient they are but they surely work:
  Find highest level of a hierarchical field: with vs without CTEs.

You'll find more useful information in the links:

• Trees and Other Hierarchies in MySQL, in Get It Done With MySQL 5&6, Chapter 20. Copyright © Peter Brawley and Arthur Fuller 2011.

• EXPLAIN EXTENDED: Hierarchical queries in MySQL, by Quassnoi (yes, it's the same one that posted the query you tried.) In his blog, he has several hierarchical queries that can find ancestors, descendants, etc.

• Models for hierarchical data, for MySQL, by Bill Karwin. A slideshare describing the pros and cons of various hierarchical models in MYSQL. Slightly skewed in favour or the Closure Table.

Answer 2

Finally, I created a function as suggested by @RolandoDBA at Find highest level of a hierarchical field: with vs without CTEs

DELIMITER $$

DROP FUNCTION IF EXISTS `siblings` $$
CREATE FUNCTION `siblings` (GivenID INT) RETURNS varchar(1024) CHARSET latin1
DETERMINISTIC
BEGIN

    DECLARE rv,q,queue,queue_children VARCHAR(1024);
    DECLARE queue_length,front_id,pos INT;

    SET rv = '';
    SET queue = GivenID;
    SET queue_length = 1;

    WHILE queue_length > 0 DO
        SET front_id = FORMAT(queue,0);
        IF queue_length = 1 THEN
            SET queue = '';
        ELSE
            SET pos = LOCATE(',',queue) + 1;
            SET q = SUBSTR(queue,pos);
            SET queue = q;
        END IF;
        SET queue_length = queue_length - 1;

        SELECT IFNULL(qc,'') INTO queue_children
        FROM (SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(id) qc
        FROM `users` WHERE parent_id = front_id) A;

        IF LENGTH(queue_children) = 0 THEN
            IF LENGTH(queue) = 0 THEN
                SET queue_length = 0;
            END IF;
        ELSE
            IF LENGTH(rv) = 0 THEN
                SET rv = queue_children;
            ELSE
                SET rv = CONCAT(rv,',',queue_children);
            END IF;
            IF LENGTH(queue) = 0 THEN
                SET queue = queue_children;
            ELSE
                SET queue = CONCAT(queue,',',queue_children);
            END IF;
            SET queue_length = LENGTH(queue) - LENGTH(REPLACE(queue,',','')) + 1;
        END IF;
    END WHILE;

    RETURN rv;

END $$

And then for getting siblings / children of a parent, a simple call using the above created function, siblings is enough.

SELECT siblings(id) AS `siblings` from `users` where `id` = 1

This returns result as

siblings
---------------
2,3,4,5,6,7,8