Discrete Derivative in SQL

Question

I've got sensor data in a table in the form:

Time      Value
10        100
20        200
36        330
46        440

I'd like to pull the change in values for each time period. Ideally, I'd like to get:

Starttime Endtime   Change
10        20        100
20        36        130
36        46        110

My SQL skills are pretty rudimentary, so my inclination is to pull all the data out to a script that processes it and then push it back to the new table, but I thought I'd ask if there was a slick way to do this all in the database.

Answer 1

First off, I would add an id column to the table so that you have something that predictably increases from row to row.

Then, I would try the following query:

SELECT t1.Time AS 'Starttime', t2.Time AS 'Endtime',
    (t2.Value - t1.Value) AS 'Change'
FROM SensorData t1
INNER JOIN SensorData t2 ON (t2.id - 1) = t1.id
ORDER BY t1.Time ASC

I'm going to create a test table to try this for myself so I don't know if it works yet but it's worth a shot!

Update Fixed with one minor issue (CHANGE is a protected word and had to be quoted) but tested it and it works! It produces exactly the results defined above.

Answer 2

Select a.Time as StartTime, b.time as EndTime, b.time-a.time as TimeChange, b.value-a.value as ValueChange
FROM YourTable a, YourTable b
WHERE b.time = (Select MIN(c.time) FROM YourTable c WHERE c.time>a.time)

Answer 3

Select a.Time as StartTime
     , b.time as EndTime
     , b.time-a.time as TimeChange
     , b.value-a.value as ValueChange
FROM YourTable a 
Left outer Join YourTable b ON b.time>a.time
Left outer Join YourTable c ON c.time<b.time AND c.time > a.time
Where c.time is null
Order By a.time

Answer 4

Does this work?

WITH T AS
(
SELECT [Time]
    ,  Value
    ,  RN1 =  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY [Time])
    ,  RN2 =  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY [Time]) - 1   
FROM  SensorData
)
SELECT  
   StartTime = ISNULL(t1.[time], t2.[time])
 , EndTime = ISNULL(t2.[time], 0)
 , Change = t2.value - t1.value

FROM    T t1 
    LEFT OUTER JOIN 
        T t2

ON t1.RN1 = t2.RN2