TSQL Parent > Child > Sub-Child duplication without cursor

Question

I am creating a SQL 2008 R2 stored procedure to duplicate a row and all it's children.

It's a 3-tiered setup with a Parent, Child and Sub-Child Given the ID of the parent I need to create a duplicate.

I have solved it using a fast_forward cursor.

I know I can also do it with a while loop through rows but I do not believe that will be faster than this cursor method. What are your thoughts?

Is there a better way to accomplish this task without using cursors?

EDIT: Another option I considered was creating a temp table holding the old / new PKID's of the TBLACStages records.

TBLACStages may have anywhere from 1 to 20 corresponding rows (and TBLACUpgrade will likely have 3 rows per TBLACStages row)

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[spDuplicateACUnit]
@pACUnitID bigint = 0 
AS BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;

DECLARE @NewACUnitID bigint = 0

INSERT INTO TBLACUnits ([col1] ,[col2] ,[...] ,[coln]) SELECT [col1] ,[col2] ,[...] ,[coln] FROM TBLACUnits WHERE ACUnitID = @pACUnitID

SELECT @NewACUnitID = SCOPE_IDENTITY()

DECLARE @ACStageID bigint = 0 
    DECLARE @NewACStageID bigint = 0

DECLARE @ACUnitCursor CURSOR

SET @ACUnitCursor = CURSOR LOCAL FAST_FORWARD FOR SELECT ACStageID FROM TBLACStages WHERE TBLACStages.ACUnitID = @pACUnitID

OPEN @ACUnitCursor

FETCH NEXT FROM @ACUnitCursor INTO @ACStageID

WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0 
BEGIN

INSERT INTO TBLACStages ([ACUnitID] ,[col1] ,[col2] ,[...] ,[coln]) SELECT @NewACUnitID ,[col1] ,[col2] ,[...] ,[coln] FROM TBLACStages WHERE TBLACStages.ACStageID = @ACStageID

SELECT @NewACStageID = SCOPE_IDENTITY()

INSERT INTO TBLACUpgrade ([ACStageID] ,[col1] ,[col2] ,[...] ,[coln]) SELECT @NewACStageID ,[col1] ,[col2] ,[...] ,[coln] FROM TBLACUpgrade WHERE TBLACUpgrade.[ACStageID] = @ACStageID

FETCH NEXT FROM @ACUnitCursor INTO @ACStageID 
END

CLOSE @ACUnitCursor DEALLOCATE @ACUnitCursor

END

GO

Answer 1

To increase the speed of your SP you can add another statement FOR READ ONLY

So your SP will be like that:

    ...

SET @ACUnitCursor = CURSOR LOCAL FAST_FORWARD FOR 

SELECT ACStageID FROM TBLACStages WHERE TBLACStages.ACUnitID = @pACUnitID

FOR READ ONLY  -- add this to increase the speed

OPEN @ACUnitCursor

FETCH NEXT FROM @ACUnitCursor INTO @ACStageID

...

Answer 2

This should give you the idea:

CREATE TABLE t_parent (id INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY IDENTITY, value VARCHAR(100))
CREATE TABLE t_child (id INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY IDENTITY, parent INT NOT NULL, value VARCHAR(100))
CREATE TABLE t_grandchild (id INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY IDENTITY, child INT NOT NULL, value VARCHAR(100))

INSERT
INTO    t_parent (value)
VALUES  ('Parent 1')

INSERT
INTO    t_parent (value)
VALUES  ('Parent 2')

INSERT
INTO    t_child (parent, value)
VALUES  (1, 'Child 2')

INSERT
INTO    t_child (parent, value)
VALUES  (2, 'Child 2')

INSERT
INTO    t_grandchild (child, value)
VALUES  (1, 'Grandchild 1')

INSERT
INTO    t_grandchild (child, value)
VALUES  (1, 'Grandchild 2')

INSERT
INTO    t_grandchild (child, value)
VALUES  (2, 'Grandchild 3')

DECLARE @parent TABLE (oid INT, nid INT)
DECLARE @child TABLE (oid INT, nid INT)

MERGE
INTO    t_parent
USING   (
        SELECT  id, value
        FROM    t_parent
        ) p
ON      1 = 0
WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN
INSERT  (value)
VALUES  (value)
OUTPUT  p.id, INSERTED.id
INTO    @parent;
SELECT  *
FROM    @parent
MERGE
INTO    t_child
USING   (
        SELECT  c.id, p.nid, c.value
        FROM    @parent p
        JOIN    t_child c
        ON      c.parent = p.oid
        ) c
ON      1 = 0
WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN
INSERT  (parent, value)
VALUES  (nid, value)
OUTPUT  c.id, INSERTED.id
INTO    @child;
SELECT  *
FROM    @child;
INSERT
INTO    t_grandchild (child, value)
SELECT  c.nid, gc.value
FROM    @child c
JOIN    t_grandchild gc
ON      gc.child = c.oid
SELECT  *
FROM    t_grandchild

Answer 3

Ok, this is the MERGE I've come up with based on Quassnoi's solution. I should work appropriately without the CURSOR

DECLARE @parent TABLE (oid BIGINT, nid BIGINT)
DECLARE @child TABLE (oid BIGINT, nid BIGINT)

MERGE
INTO    TBLACUnits T
USING   (SELECT [col1], [...], [coln] FROM TBLACUnits WHERE ID = @pID) S

ON      1 = 0
WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN
INSERT  ([ACUnitID]
   ,[col1]
   ,[...]
   ,[coln])
VALUES  (S.[ACUnitID]
   ,S.[col1]
   ,S.[...]
   ,S.[coln]])
OUTPUT  S.ACUnitID, INSERTED.ACUnitID
INTO    @parent;

MERGE
INTO    TBLACStages T
USING   (
  SELECT  tt.[nid] 
                       ,TBLACStages.[col1]
                       ,TBLACStages.[...]
                       ,TBLACStages.[coln]
  FROM TBLACStages
  JOIN @parent tt ON tt.oid = TBLACStages.ACUnitID
  ) S
ON      1 = 0
WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN
INSERT  ([ACUnitID]
   ,[col1]
   ,[...]
   ,[coln])
VALUES  ([nid]
   ,[col1]
   ,[...]
   ,[coln])
OUTPUT  S.[ACStageID], INSERTED.[ACStageID]
INTO    @child;

INSERT INTO TBLACUpgrade 
([ACStageID]
   ,[col1]
   ,[...]
   ,[coln])
SELECT  c.[nid]
   ,TBLACUpgrade.[col1]
   ,TBLACUpgrade.[...]
   ,TBLACUpgrade.[coln]
FROM    @child c
JOIN    TBLACUpgrade
 ON      TBLACUpgrade.ACStageID  = c.oid