SQL using CASE in SELECT with GROUP BY. Need CASE-value but get row-value

Question

so basicially there is 1 question and 1 problem:

1. question - when I have like 100 columns in a table(and no key or uindex is set) and I want to join or subselect that table with itself, do I really have to write out every column name?

2. problem - the example below shows the 1. question and my actual SQL-statement problem

Example:

A.FIELD1,
(SELECT CASE WHEN B.FIELD2 = 1 THEN B.FIELD3 ELSE null FROM TABLE B WHERE A.* = B.*) AS CASEFIELD1
(SELECT CASE WHEN B.FIELD2 = 2 THEN B.FIELD4 ELSE null FROM TABLE B WHERE A.* = B.*) AS CASEFIELD2
FROM TABLE A
GROUP BY A.FIELD1

The story is: if I don't put the CASE into its own select statement then I have to put the actual rowname into the GROUP BY and the GROUP BY doesn't group the NULL-value from the CASE but the actual value from the row. And because of that I would have to either join or subselect with all columns, since there is no key and no uindex, or somehow find another solution.

DBServer is DB2.

So now to describing it just with words and no SQL: I have "order items" which can be divided into "ZD" and "EK" (1 = ZD, 2 = EK) and can be grouped by "distributor". Even though "order items" can have one of two different "departements"(ZD, EK), the fields/rows for "ZD" and "EK" are always both filled. I need the grouping to consider the "departement" and only if the designated "departement" (ZD or EK) is changing, then I want a new group to be created.

SELECT
(CASE WHEN TABLE.DEPARTEMENT = 1 THEN TABLE.ZD ELSE null END) AS ZD,
(CASE WHEN TABLE.DEPARTEMENT = 2 THEN TABLE.EK ELSE null END) AS EK,
TABLE.DISTRIBUTOR,
sum(TABLE.SOMETHING) AS SOMETHING,
FROM TABLE
GROUP BY
ZD
EK
TABLE.DISTRIBUTOR
TABLE.DEPARTEMENT

This here worked in the SELECT and ZD, EK in the GROUP BY. Only problem was, even if EK was not the designated DEPARTEMENT, it still opened a new group if it changed, because he was using the real EK value and not the NULL from the CASE, as I was already explaining up top.

Answer 1

And here ladies and gentleman is the solution to the problem:

SELECT
(CASE WHEN TABLE.DEPARTEMENT = 1 THEN TABLE.ZD ELSE null END) AS ZD,
(CASE WHEN TABLE.DEPARTEMENT = 2 THEN TABLE.EK ELSE null END) AS EK,
TABLE.DISTRIBUTOR,
sum(TABLE.SOMETHING) AS SOMETHING,
FROM TABLE
GROUP BY
(CASE WHEN TABLE.DEPARTEMENT = 1 THEN TABLE.ZD ELSE null END),
(CASE WHEN TABLE.DEPARTEMENT = 2 THEN TABLE.EK ELSE null END),
TABLE.DISTRIBUTOR,
TABLE.DEPARTEMENT

@t-clausen.dk: Thank you!

@others: ...

Answer 2

Actually there is a wildcard equality test. I am not sure why you would group by field1, that would seem impossible in your example. I tried to fit it into your question:

SELECT FIELD1,
CASE WHEN FIELD2 = 1 THEN FIELD3 END AS CASEFIELD1,
CASE WHEN FIELD2 = 2 THEN FIELD4 END AS CASEFIELD2
FROM 
(
 SELECT * FROM A
 INTERSECT
 SELECT * FROM B
) C
UNION -- results in a distinct
SELECT
A.FIELD1,
null,
null
FROM 
(
 SELECT * FROM A
 EXCEPT
 SELECT * FROM B
) C

This will fail for datatypes that are not comparable

Answer 3

No, there's no wildcard equality test. You'd have to list every field you want tested individually. If you don't want to test each individual field, you could use a hack such as concatenating all the fields, eg

WHERE (a.foo + a.bar + a.baz) = (b.foo + b.bar + b.az)

but either way, you're listing all of the fields.

Answer 4

I might tend to solve it something like this

WITH q as
(SELECT
       Department
     , (CASE WHEN DEPARTEMENT = 1 THEN ZD
             WHEN DEPARTEMENT = 2 THEN EK
                                  ELSE null 
        END) AS GRP
     , DISTRIBUTOR
     , SOMETHING 
   FROM mytable
)
SELECT 
       Department
     , Grp
     , Distributor

     , sum(SOMETHING) AS SumTHING
  FROM q
GROUP BY
       DEPARTEMENT 
     , GRP
     , DISTRIBUTOR

Answer 5

If you need to find all rows in TableA that match in TableB, how about INTERSECT or INTERSECT DISTINCT?

select * from A
 INTERSECT DISTINCT
select * from B

However, if you only want rows from A where the entire row matches the values in a row from B, then why does your sample code take some values from A and others from B? If the row matches on all columns, then that would seem pointless. (Perhaps your question could be explained a bit more fully?)