Filling up the results of a query

Hello,

I could not find an answer for my following problem through Google, maybe because I did not find the best keywords. So I hope that one of you can help me.

I need to create a view that "fills up" the entries of a table. Example: Let's consider a table t_rates with bank rates for borrowing money for a certain duration:

Duration_Months; Rate
3; 4.0%
6; 4.5%
12; 4.8%

The problem is that I need a value for all durations, not only the ones I have. So I would like to create a view that calculates (e.g. interpolates, extrapolates) the rates. Result:

Duration_Months; Rate

1; 4.0%
2; 4.0%
3; 4.0%
4; 4.2%
5; 4.4%
6; 4.5%

Whatever the rates will be, that is not important for me right now. What I need is the sequence of all durations.

I could solve this through normal sql if I created an auxiliary table t_numbers with a single column containing all the integer numbers I needed and doing an outer join from t_numbers on t_rates. But I do not like the idea of having such a dumb table t_numbers.

What is the best approach for my problem? Some form of "select from dual"? Or PL / SQL?

Thanks.

Hans Received on Mon Apr 14 2008 - 11:41:49 CDT