Re: Connect By Challenge!

In article <966fcac1.0108090759.5593410_at_posting.google.com>, akm111_at_yahoo.com says...
>
>Thomas Kyte <tkyte_at_us.oracle.com> wrote in message
>news:<9ksiu602jia_at_drn.newsguy.com>...
>> In article <966fcac1.0108081223.39098cc_at_posting.google.com>, akm111_at_yahoo.com
>> says...
>> >
>> >I'd love some help with this.
>> >
>> >Let's say I've got a family tree type of database with:
>> >
>> > person, parent, older_sibling
>> >
>> >as columns, and I want to output this data in a tree structure. By
>> >using:
>> >
>> > SELECT person, parent, older_sibling
>> > FROM table_name
>> > START WITH parent = 'Eve'
>> > CONNECT BY parent = PRIOR person
>> >
>> >I get a tree structure, but the siblings aren't in any particular
>> >order. I've read that Oracle 9 now has an ORDER SIBLINGS BY option,
>> >but for now I'm stuck with Oracle 8.
>> >
>> >Can anyone steer me in the right direction to get the siblings in
>> >order?
>> >
>> >Thanks a million,
>> >Amy
>>
>> yes, 9i has the order siblings by that will solve this once and for all.
>>
>>Until then, if you have total control over the indexing scheme -- a concatenated
>> index on (parent,older_sibling) -- without any other index with parent on the
>> leading edge -- will probably do it (by accident)
>>
>> see
>>
>> http://asktom.oracle.com/pls/ask/f?p=4950:8:::::F4950_P8_DISPLAYID:9212348049
>
>Thanks, Tom. You're a god.
>
>I realize now, though, that I wasn't thinking about it exactly right,
>and I think I led you astray a bit. What you suggest would work if I
>wanted the siblings in alphabetical order, but what I need is actually
>more complicated than that. They need to be ordered by age, but we
>don't know their birthdate, just who their previous sibling is.
>
>Any thoughts on how to approach that?
>
>TIA,
>Amy

what does the table/sample input data look like?

--
Thomas Kyte (tkyte@us.oracle.com)             http://asktom.oracle.com/ 
Expert one on one Oracle, programming techniques and solutions for Oracle.
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