Looking around online, I could not find a great example of how to draw Pascal’s Triangle in SQL. The solution is quite cool in SQL, because management studio prints out a nice grid for you. Here are three examples. The first one is simple and well documented, the second one is a little more squished, and the third one is a complete dumpster fire that I got too by looking up how to code golf in SQL.
raw
CREATE PROCEDURE PascalsTriangle
@Levels INT
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON
-- Declare variables
DECLARE @counter INT = 2
DECLARE @innerCount INT
DECLARE @tmp DECIMAL(38,0)
DECLARE @tmp2 DECIMAL(38,0)
DECLARE @dquery NVARCHAR(2048)
-- Create the results table with its one column
CREATE TABLE #result
(
[1] DECIMAL(38,0)
)
INSERT INTO #result VALUES (1)
-- For every level beyond 1
WHILE(@counter <= @Levels)
BEGIN
-- Add another column to to the table
EXEC('ALTER TABLE #result ADD [' + @counter + '] DECIMAL(38,0)')
-- Select the previous row into a temp table
SELECT *
INTO #row
FROM #result
ORDER BY 1
OFFSET (@counter - 2) ROWS
FETCH NEXT 1 ROWS ONLY
-- Re-initialize the temp variables, and loop counter
SET @tmp = 1
SET @tmp2 = 1
SET @innerCount = 2
-- For every column beyond 1
WHILE(@innerCount <= @counter)
BEGIN
-- Create a query which selects the current value of the cell to back it up.
SET @dquery = 'SELECT @t = [' + CAST(@innerCount AS NVARCHAR(10)) + '] FROM #row'
EXEC sp_executesql @dquery, N'@t DECIMAL(38,0) OUTPUT', @t = @tmp2 OUTPUT
-- Set the value of this cell in this row to that + @tmp
EXEC('UPDATE #row SET [' + @innerCount + '] = ISNULL([' + @innerCount + '], 0) + ' + @tmp)
-- Reset the temp variable
SET @tmp = @tmp2
-- Increment the count
SET @innerCount += 1
END
-- Insert the row into result
INSERT INTO #result
SELECT * FROM #row
-- Increment the counter
SET @counter += 1
-- Drop the row temp table
DROP TABLE #row
END
-- Output the result
SELECT * FROM #result
DROP TABLE #result
END
There is another post in PowerShell which does a much better job actually explaining details about how this triangle works. But long story short, every item is the sum of the two above it added together. So now let’s make the script a little smaller.
raw
CREATE PROCEDURE PascalsTriangle2
@Levels INT
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON
DECLARE @o INT=2
DECLARE @ INT
DECLARE @1 DECIMAL(38,0)
DECLARE @2 DECIMAL(38,0)
DECLARE @q NVARCHAR(2048)
CREATE TABLE #o([1] DECIMAL(38,0))
INSERT #o VALUES(1)
o:
EXEC('ALTER TABLE #o ADD['+@o+']DECIMAL(38,0)')
SELECT *INTO #r FROM #o ORDER BY 1 OFFSET(@o-2)ROWS FETCH NEXT 1 ROWS ONLY
SET @1 = 1
SET @2 = 1
SET @ = 2
i:
SET @q = CONCAT('DECLARE @ TABLE (val DECIMAL(38,0));UPDATE #r SET [',@,']=ISNULL([',@,'], 0)+',@1,'OUTPUT deleted.[',@,']INTO @;SET @t=(SELECT *FROM @)')
EXEC sp_executesql @q,N'@t DECIMAL(38,0) OUTPUT',@t=@2 OUTPUT
SET @1 = @2
SET @ += 1
IF @ <= @o GOTO i
INSERT #o
SELECT * FROM #r
SET @o += 1
DROP TABLE #r
IF @o <= @Levels GOTO o
SELECT * FROM #o
DROP TABLE #o
END
As you can see, I removed all the pesky comments which were just getting in the way of looking small. Also, the while loops were all turned into GOTO loops to take up a little less space. The variable names were shortened a little as well.
raw
DECLARE @s NVARCHAR(MAX)='CREATE PROCEDURE PascalsTriangle3
@Levels INT
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON
~o |=2~ |~1 &~2 &~q NVARCHAR(2048)CREATE TABLE #o([1] &)INSERT #o VALUES(1)
o:EXEC(''ALTER TABLE #o ADD[''+@o+'']&'')$|O #r ^#o ORDER BY 1 OFFSET(@o-2)ROWS FETCH NEXT 1 ROWS ONLY!1 = 1!2 = 1! = 2
i:!q = CONCAT(''~ TABLE (val &);UPDATE #r SET ['',@,'']=ISNULL(['',@,''], 0)+'',@1,''OUTPUT deleted.['',@,'']|O @;!t=($^@)'')EXEC sp_executesql @q,N''@t & OUTPUT'',@t=@2 OUTPUT!1 = @2!+=1IF @ <= @o GOTO i
INSERT #o$ ^#r!o += 1%#r IF @o <= @Levels goto o$ ^#o%#o
END'
SELECT @s=REPLACE(@s,LEFT(i,1),SUBSTRING(i,2,20))
FROM(VALUES('~ DECLARE @'),('! SET @'),('& DECIMAL(38,0)'),('% DROP TABLE '),('$ SELECT *'),('^ FROM '),('| INT'))a(i)
EXEC(@s)
Now there’s the real beast. It does a bunch of replacements on a string, to make some longer valid SQL, then executes the SQL dynamically to produce the stored procedure. That’s some production quality code.