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Grasshopper
      
Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Friday, March 08, 2013 3:36 AM
Points: 24,
Visits: 145
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Hi all,
I've got a column, called user_code char(3) that is used to store unique codes. The patterns are as follows
Character 1 is A-Z Character 2 is 0-9,A-Z Character 3 is 1-9,0,A-Z
So, the data starts at
A01 A02 ... AZZ B01 B02 .. BZZ .. ZZZ
Now, what I need to do is write a T-SQL statement that will tell me what the next available (ie unused) user_code can be. I wish I could just do a MAX(user_code) to find the most recently used one and then work out the next value in the sequence, but it's not that simple, as the user_codes assigned aren't in any meaningful order..
If you could help me with this, that'd be awesome. There are no constraints here really, if it means creating another lookup table with all the options in, then that's allowed, as long as the solution works!
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SSC Veteran
      
Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Friday, December 31, 2010 9:46 AM
Points: 274,
Visits: 473
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I suggest creating another table containing every possible 3-char value, clustered on that code (fillfactor 100). Then join to that table and find the first one that isn't in use.
OR
If you (almost) never delete rows where you're adding the 3-char code, delete each 3-char code from the lookup table as you insert it into the main/detail table. Then you would always just select the MIN(code3) from the lookup table.
Scott Pletcher, SQL Server MVP 2008-2010
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Ten Centuries
      
Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Saturday, February 23, 2013 11:07 AM
Points: 1,103,
Visits: 1,170
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Although the absolute fastest performance is going to be what Scott said, it is possible to do it inline. (And this was worth doing anyway so you could use the same logic to quickly generate the 30K codes if that's what you choose to do.)
--fake table / data CREATE TABLE #yourTable (user_code char(3)) INSERT INTO #yourTable (user_code) select 'A01' union select 'A02' union select 'B01'
--query with inline tally ;WITH E1(N) AS (SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1),--6 E2(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E1 a, E1 b),--36 cteTally(N) AS (SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY N) FROM E2), cteAlphaNum AS (select N, Value = case when N <= 26 then char(c1.N + 64) else cast(N - 27 as varchar) end from cteTally c1), cteFinalList AS (select c1.Value + c2.Value + c3.Value as user_code from cteAlphaNum c1 cross join cteAlphaNum c2 cross join cteAlphaNum c3 where c1.N <= 26 and (c2.N <= 26 or c3.N <> 27)) select top 1 fl.user_code from cteFinalList fl left join #yourTable t on t.user_code = fl.user_code where t.user_code is null order by fl.user_code asc
└> bt
Forum Etiquette: How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help
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