Hi Steve,

Some clues allow more than one interpretation:

"The green office was to the left of the white office." - is that directly to the left (adjacent) or somewhere to the left?

"Sue has the first office." - is that the leftmost or the rightmost office?

I've made the assumption that the green and left office need not be directly adjacent, and the the first office is the leftmost office. With those assumptions, there are a total of six solutions to the problem. In two, Sue has the Dual 19" LCDs. Andy gets them in three, and the last solution has Brian working the dual 19" LCDs.

Of course, I didn't work this out for mysself. This is a SQL Server forum, after all!!

CREATE VIEW Carthesian
AS
SELECT      *
FROM       (SELECT 1 UNION ALL
            SELECT 2 UNION ALL
            SELECT 3 UNION ALL
            SELECT 4 UNION ALL
            SELECT 5) AS Offices(Office)
CROSS JOIN (SELECT 'Brian' UNION ALL
            SELECT 'Steve' UNION ALL
            SELECT 'Andy' UNION ALL
            SELECT 'Sue' UNION ALL
            SELECT 'Kevin') AS Persons(Person)
CROSS JOIN (SELECT 'red' UNION ALL
            SELECT 'green' UNION ALL
            SELECT 'white' UNION ALL
            SELECT 'yellow' UNION ALL
            SELECT 'blue') AS Colors(Color)
CROSS JOIN (SELECT 'Prius' UNION ALL
            SELECT 'Accord' UNION ALL
            SELECT 'Caravan' UNION ALL
            SELECT 'Corvette' UNION ALL
            SELECT 'Suburban') AS Cars(Car)
CROSS JOIN (SELECT 'iced tea' UNION ALL
            SELECT 'coffee' UNION ALL
            SELECT 'Red Bull' UNION ALL
            SELECT 'beer' UNION ALL
            SELECT 'Mountain Dew') AS Drinks(Drink)
CROSS JOIN (SELECT '17" CRT' UNION ALL
            SELECT '15" CRT' UNION ALL
            SELECT '15" LCD' UNION ALL
            SELECT '17" LCD' UNION ALL
            SELECT 'dual 19" LCDs') AS Monitors(Monitor)
go
CREATE VIEW Combinations
AS
SELECT     *
FROM       Carthesian
WHERE NOT (Person = 'Brian' AND Color <> 'red')       -- Brian had the red office.
AND   NOT (Person = 'Steve' AND Monitor <> '17" CRT') -- Steve had a 17" CRT on his desk.
AND   NOT (Person = 'Andy' AND Drink <> 'iced tea')   -- Andy liked to drink iced tea.
AND   NOT (Color = 'green' AND Drink <> 'coffee')     -- The person with the green office drinks coffee.
AND   NOT (Car = 'Prius' AND Monitor <> '15" CRT')    -- The person who drove a Prius had a 15" CRT.
AND   NOT (Office = 3 AND Drink <> 'Red Bull')        -- The person in the middle office drinks Red Bull.
AND   NOT (Color = 'yellow' AND Car <> 'Accord')      -- The person with the yellow office drove an Accord.
AND   NOT (Office = 1 AND Person <> 'Sue')            -- Sue has the first office.
AND   NOT (Car = 'Corvette' AND Drink <> 'beer')      -- The Corvette driver drinks beer.
AND   NOT (Person = 'Sue' AND Color <> 'blue')        -- Sue has the blue office.
AND   NOT (Person = 'Kevin' AND Car <> 'Suburban')    -- Kevin drives a Suburban.
go
CREATE VIEW Solution
AS
SELECT c1.Office AS Office_1, c1.Person AS Person_1, c1.Color AS Color_1, c1.Car AS Car_1, c1.Drink AS Drink_1, c1.Monitor AS Monitor_1,
       c2.Office AS Office_2, c2.Person AS Person_2, c2.Color AS Color_2, c2.Car AS Car_2, c2.Drink AS Drink_2, c2.Monitor AS Monitor_2,
       c3.Office AS Office_3, c3.Person AS Person_3, c3.Color AS Color_3, c3.Car AS Car_3, c3.Drink AS Drink_3, c3.Monitor AS Monitor_3,
       c4.Office AS Office_4, c4.Person AS Person_4, c4.Color AS Color_4, c4.Car AS Car_4, c4.Drink AS Drink_4, c4.Monitor AS Monitor_4,
       c5.Office AS Office_5, c5.Person AS Person_5, c5.Color AS Color_5, c5.Car AS Car_5, c5.Drink AS Drink_5, c5.Monitor AS Monitor_5
FROM   Combinations AS c1
JOIN   Combinations AS c2
  ON   c2.Person <> c1.Person
  AND  c2.Color <> c1.Color
  AND  c2.Car <> c1.Car
  AND  c2.Drink <> c1.Drink
  AND  c2.Monitor <> c1.Monitor
JOIN   Combinations AS c3
  ON   c3.Person <> c1.Person
  AND  c3.Person <> c2.Person
  AND  c3.Color <> c1.Color
  AND  c3.Color <> c2.Color
  AND  c3.Car <> c1.Car
  AND  c3.Car <> c2.Car
  AND  c3.Drink <> c1.Drink
  AND  c3.Drink <> c2.Drink
  AND  c3.Monitor <> c1.Monitor
  AND  c3.Monitor <> c2.Monitor
JOIN   Combinations AS c4
  ON   c4.Person <> c1.Person
  AND  c4.Person <> c2.Person
  AND  c4.Person <> c3.Person
  AND  c4.Color <> c1.Color
  AND  c4.Color <> c2.Color
  AND  c4.Color <> c3.Color
  AND  c4.Car <> c1.Car
  AND  c4.Car <> c2.Car
  AND  c4.Car <> c3.Car
  AND  c4.Drink <> c1.Drink
  AND  c4.Drink <> c2.Drink
  AND  c4.Drink <> c3.Drink
  AND  c4.Monitor <> c1.Monitor
  AND  c4.Monitor <> c2.Monitor
  AND  c4.Monitor <> c3.Monitor
JOIN   Combinations AS c5
  ON   c5.Person <> c1.Person
  AND  c5.Person <> c2.Person
  AND  c5.Person <> c3.Person
  AND  c5.Person <> c4.Person
  AND  c5.Color <> c1.Color
  AND  c5.Color <> c2.Color
  AND  c5.Color <> c3.Color
  AND  c5.Color <> c4.Color
  AND  c5.Car <> c1.Car
  AND  c5.Car <> c2.Car
  AND  c5.Car <> c3.Car
  AND  c5.Car <> c4.Car
  AND  c5.Drink <> c1.Drink
  AND  c5.Drink <> c2.Drink
  AND  c5.Drink <> c3.Drink
  AND  c5.Drink <> c4.Drink
  AND  c5.Monitor <> c1.Monitor
  AND  c5.Monitor <> c2.Monitor
  AND  c5.Monitor <> c3.Monitor
  AND  c5.Monitor <> c4.Monitor
WHERE  c1.Office = 1
AND    c2.Office = 2
AND    c3.Office = 3
AND    c4.Office = 4
AND    c5.Office = 5
-- The green office was to the left of the white office.
AND CASE 'white'
     WHEN c1.Color THEN 'F'
     WHEN c2.Color THEN CASE WHEN 'green' IN (c1.Color) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
     WHEN c3.Color THEN CASE WHEN 'green' IN (c1.Color, c2.Color) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
     WHEN c4.Color THEN CASE WHEN 'green' IN (c1.Color, c2.Color, c3.Color) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
     WHEN c5.Color THEN 'T'
    END = 'T'
--The person who drives the Caravan has an office next to the person who has the 15" LCD.
AND CASE 'Caravan'
     WHEN c1.Car THEN CASE WHEN '15" LCD' IN (c2.Monitor) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
     WHEN c2.Car THEN CASE WHEN '15" LCD' IN (c1.Monitor, c3.Monitor) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
     WHEN c3.Car THEN CASE WHEN '15" LCD' IN (c2.Monitor, c4.Monitor) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
     WHEN c4.Car THEN CASE WHEN '15" LCD' IN (c3.Monitor, c5.Monitor) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
     WHEN c5.Car THEN CASE WHEN '15" LCD' IN (c4.Monitor) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
    END = 'T'
--The person who has the 17" LCD sits next to the person who drives an Accord.
AND CASE '17" LCD'
     WHEN c1.Monitor THEN CASE WHEN 'Accord' IN (c2.Car) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
     WHEN c2.Monitor THEN CASE WHEN 'Accord' IN (c1.Car, c3.Car) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
     WHEN c3.Monitor THEN CASE WHEN 'Accord' IN (c2.Car, c4.Car) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
     WHEN c4.Monitor THEN CASE WHEN 'Accord' IN (c3.Car, c5.Car) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
     WHEN c5.Monitor THEN CASE WHEN 'Accord' IN (c4.Car) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
    END = 'T'
--The person who drives a Caravan sits next to the person who drinks Mountain Dew.
AND CASE 'Caravan'
     WHEN c1.Car THEN CASE WHEN 'Mountain Dew' IN (c2.Drink) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
     WHEN c2.Car THEN CASE WHEN 'Mountain Dew' IN (c1.Drink, c3.Drink) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
     WHEN c3.Car THEN CASE WHEN 'Mountain Dew' IN (c2.Drink, c4.Drink) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
     WHEN c4.Car THEN CASE WHEN 'Mountain Dew' IN (c3.Drink, c5.Drink) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
     WHEN c5.Car THEN CASE WHEN 'Mountain Dew' IN (c4.Drink) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
    END = 'T'
go
SELECT * FROM Solution
go
DROP VIEW Solution
DROP VIEW Combinations
DROP VIEW Carthesian
go

(I hope the formatting comes out okay....)

Okay, so my assumptions were wrong.

The green office was to the left of the white office." - is that directly to the left (adjacent) or somewhere to the left?

"Sue has the first office." - is that the leftmost or the rightmost office?

I've made the assumption that the green and left office need not be directly adjacent, and the the first office is the leftmost office. With those assumptions, there are a total of six solutions to the problem.

After changing my query to the three other possible combinations of interpretations, I found an interpretation that leaves just one single answer to the question.

If we assume the the green office is directly adjacent (to the left) if the white office, AND that the first (Sue's) office is to the far right, then my query returns just two rows - and in both rows, Andy is the lucky one who gets to play with the dual 19" LCDs.

Here's the changed part of the query:

-- The green office was to the left of the white office.
AND    CASE 'white'
        WHEN c5.Color THEN 'F'
        WHEN c4.Color THEN CASE WHEN 'green' IN (c5.Color) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
        WHEN c3.Color THEN CASE WHEN 'green' IN (c4.Color) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
        WHEN c2.Color THEN CASE WHEN 'green' IN (c3.Color) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
        WHEN c1.Color THEN CASE WHEN 'green' IN (c2.Color) THEN 'T' ELSE 'F' END
       END = 'T'

BTW, the execution plan is definitely, ahem, "interesting"

It certainly makes a difference depending on whether one assumes the "first office" means rightmost or leftmost.

I also worked this out using SQL Server (it's supposed to be a logical inference engine, after all!)

I noticed that the relations I end up with that fulfill the constraints leave open the question of which offices(positionally) certain engineers occupy, and which drinks they like.

TroyK

I would say it has to be Andy did it in the Yellow office with the spare change in his pocket.

Howevr I am the third gunman on the grassy knoll who just happens to have dual 19s.

Hi Steve,

Fortunately, I had kept my query window open over the day!

With the clarification that first = leftmost (my first assumption) and the additional hint that the red house (office) is in the middle, I still get three solutions with the green offfice directly left of the white office, and even four solutions with the green office "somewhere to the left" of the white office.

In both lists, the 19" Dual monitor can be in Sue's, Andy's, or Brian's office.

(Just run the SQL I included in my first post, with this additional line for the Combinations view:

AND NOT (Office = 3 AND Color <> 'red') -- The red house (office) is in the middle.