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Sorting 'Total' After Data Values

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1 Jun 2016CPOL 20.9K   1   5
Interspersing 'Total' rows among summarized data rows in the correct order

On occasion, I have to write a query* to summarize some hierarchical data and I want to have subtotals as well as a grand total. These various total lines should be in their correct logical positions within the output.

Consider the following table (or a similar view of some normalized tables):

SQL
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[TierPark]
( 
  [Tier0] [NVARCHAR](8) NOT NULL
, [Tier1] [NVARCHAR](8) NOT NULL
, [Tier2] [NVARCHAR](8) NOT NULL
, [Value] [NVARCHAR](8) NOT NULL 
)

With some data rows:

SQL
INSERT INTO [dbo].[TierPark] VALUES ( 'A' , 'A' , 'A', 'AAA0' )
INSERT INTO [dbo].[TierPark] VALUES ( 'A' , 'A' , 'A', 'AAA1' )
INSERT INTO [dbo].[TierPark] VALUES ( 'A' , 'A' , 'B', 'AAB0' )
INSERT INTO [dbo].[TierPark] VALUES ( 'A' , 'B' , 'A', 'ABA0' )
INSERT INTO [dbo].[TierPark] VALUES ( 'A' , 'B' , 'C', 'ABC0' )
INSERT INTO [dbo].[TierPark] VALUES ( 'A' , 'B' , 'C', 'ABC1' )
...
INSERT INTO [dbo].[TierPark] VALUES ( 'Z' , 'Y' , 'Y', 'ZYY0' )
INSERT INTO [dbo].[TierPark] VALUES ( 'Z' , 'Z' , 'Y', 'ZZY1' )
INSERT INTO [dbo].[TierPark] VALUES ( 'Z' , 'Z' , 'Y', 'ZZY2' )
INSERT INTO [dbo].[TierPark] VALUES ( 'Z' , 'Z' , 'Y', 'ZZY3' )
INSERT INTO [dbo].[TierPark] VALUES ( 'Z' , 'Z' , 'Z', 'ZZZ0' )
INSERT INTO [dbo].[TierPark] VALUES ( 'Z' , 'Z' , 'Z', 'ZZZ1' )

The desired output is something like this:

Tier0   Tier1   Tier2   Total
A       A       A       2
A       A       B       1
A       A       total   3
A       B       A       1
A       B       C       2
A       B       total   3
A       total           6
Z       Y       Y       1
Z       Y       total   1
Z       Z       Y       3
Z       Z       Z       2
Z       Z       total   5
Z       total           6
total                   12

but if I'm not careful, I get:

Tier0   Tier1   Tier2   Total
A       A       A       2
A       A       B       1
A       A       Total   3
A       B       A       1
A       B       C       2
A       B       Total   3
A       Total           6
Total                   12
Z       Total           6
Z       Y       Total   1
Z       Y       Y       1
Z       Z       Total   5
Z       Z       Y       3
Z       Z       Z       2

Obviously, this is because the word "Total", starting with the letter "T", sorts before the values Y and Z. What I needed to find was a character that looks like a "T", but which would sort after "Z". It didn't take long to find the Greek letter Tau (t) (Unicode U+03A4) which looks enough like the Latin letter T (depending on your choice of typeface -- I hope it looks OK in the example above, it does in the preview).

The query I used is:

SQL
  SELECT Tier0,Tier1,Tier2,COUNT(*) Total FROM [dbo].[TierPark] GROUP BY Tier0,Tier1,Tier2
UNION ALL
  SELECT Tier0,Tier1,N'total',COUNT(*) Total FROM [dbo].[TierPark] GROUP BY Tier0,Tier1
UNION ALL
  SELECT Tier0,N'total','',COUNT(*) Total FROM [dbo].[TierPark] GROUP BY Tier0
UNION ALL
  SELECT N'total','','',COUNT(*) Total FROM [dbo].[TierPark]
ORDER BY Tier0,Tier1,Tier2

Edit: Also consider SELECT NCHAR(0x03A4) + N'otal' as a more obvious technique.

* There are situations in which the only option is a single query, not multiple queries or a report engine.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Software Developer (Senior)
United States United States
BSCS 1992 Wentworth Institute of Technology

Originally from the Boston (MA) area. Lived in SoCal for a while. Now in the Phoenix (AZ) area.

OpenVMS enthusiast, ISO 8601 evangelist, photographer, opinionated SOB, acknowledged pedant and contrarian

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Comments and Discussions

 
QuestionWhy not using Rollup? Pin
Jörgen Andersson2-Jun-16 8:24
professionalJörgen Andersson2-Jun-16 8:24 
GeneralRe: Why not using Rollup? Pin
PIEBALDconsult2-Jun-16 12:39
mvePIEBALDconsult2-Jun-16 12:39 
GeneralRe: Why not using Rollup? Pin
Jörgen Andersson2-Jun-16 18:21
professionalJörgen Andersson2-Jun-16 18:21 
Questionmy vote of 5 Pin
Auslandskrankenversicherung28-Mar-12 23:05
Auslandskrankenversicherung28-Mar-12 23:05 
AnswerRe: my vote of 5 Pin
PIEBALDconsult29-Mar-12 3:22
mvePIEBALDconsult29-Mar-12 3:22 

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