The main limitation of such an approach is that you need one self-join for every level in the hierarchy, and performance will naturally degrade with each level added as the joining grows in complexity.
Limitations of the Adjacency List ModelWorking with the adjacency list model in pure SQL can be difficult at best. Before being able to see the full path of a category we have to know the level at which it resides. In addition, special care must be taken when deleting nodes because of the potential for orphaning an entire sub-tree in the process (delete the portable electronics category and all of its children are orphaned). Some of these limitations can be addressed through the use of client-side code or stored procedures. With a procedural language we can start at the bottom of the tree and iterate upwards to return the full tree or a single path. We can also use procedural programming to delete nodes without orphaning entire sub-trees by promoting one child element and re-ordering the remaining children to point to the new parent.
The Nested Set ModelWhat I would like to focus on in this article is a different approach, commonly referred to as the Nested Set Model. In the Nested Set Model, we can look at our hierarchy in a new way, not as nodes and lines, but as nested containers. Try picturing our electronics categories this way:
Notice how our hierarchy is still maintained, as parent categories envelop their children.We represent this form of hierarchy in a table through the use of left and right values to represent the nesting of our nodes:
CREATE TABLE nested_category ( category_id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, name VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL, lft INT NOT NULL, rgt INT NOT NULL ); INSERT INTO nested_category VALUES(1,'ELECTRONICS',1,20),(2,'TELEVISIONS',2,9),(3,'TUBE',3,4), (4,'LCD',5,6),(5,'PLASMA',7,8),(6,'PORTABLE ELECTRONICS',10,19), (7,'MP3 PLAYERS',11,14),(8,'FLASH',12,13), (9,'CD PLAYERS',15,16),(10,'2 WAY RADIOS',17,18); SELECT * FROM nested_category ORDER BY category_id; +-------------+----------------------+-----+-----+ | category_id | name | lft | rgt | +-------------+----------------------+-----+-----+ | 1 | ELECTRONICS | 1 | 20 | | 2 | TELEVISIONS | 2 | 9 | | 3 | TUBE | 3 | 4 | | 4 | LCD | 5 | 6 | | 5 | PLASMA | 7 | 8 | | 6 | PORTABLE ELECTRONICS | 10 | 19 | | 7 | MP3 PLAYERS | 11 | 14 | | 8 | FLASH | 12 | 13 | | 9 | CD PLAYERS | 15 | 16 | | 10 | 2 WAY RADIOS | 17 | 18 | +-------------+----------------------+-----+-----+We use lft and rgt because left and right are reserved words in MySQL, see for the full list of reserved words.
So how do we determine left and right values? We start numbering at the leftmost side of the outer node and continue to the right:
This design can be applied to a typical tree as well:
When working with a tree, we work from left to right, one layer at a time, descending to each node's children before assigning a right-hand number and moving on to the right. This approach is called the modified preorder tree traversal algorithm.
Retrieving a Full TreeWe can retrieve the full tree through the use of a self-join that links parents with nodes on the basis that a node's lft value will always appear between its parent's lft and rgt values:
SELECT node.name FROM nested_category AS node, nested_category AS parent WHERE node.lft BETWEEN parent.lft AND parent.rgt AND parent.name = 'ELECTRONICS' ORDER BY node.lft; +----------------------+ | name | +----------------------+ | ELECTRONICS | | TELEVISIONS | | TUBE | | LCD | | PLASMA | | PORTABLE ELECTRONICS | | MP3 PLAYERS | | FLASH | | CD PLAYERS | | 2 WAY RADIOS | +----------------------+Unlike our previous examples with the adjacency list model, this query will work regardless of the depth of the tree. We do not concern ourselves with the rgt value of the node in our BETWEEN clause because the rgt value will always fall within the same parent as the lft values.
Finding all the Leaf NodesFinding all leaf nodes in the nested set model even simpler than the LEFT JOIN method used in the adjacency list model. If you look at the nested_category table, you may notice that the lft and rgt values for leaf nodes are consecutive numbers. To find the leaf nodes, we look for nodes where rgt = lft + 1:
SELECT name FROM nested_category WHERE rgt = lft + 1; +--------------+ | name | +--------------+ | TUBE | | LCD | | PLASMA | | FLASH | | CD PLAYERS | | 2 WAY RADIOS | +--------------+ Retrieving a Single Path