Date_format, group by and order by together

Question

Hi,
SELECT
                         T.foreign_network_id as "Network ID",
                         date_format(T.ARRIVAL_DATE,'%v-%x') as "Date",
                    sum(case when((networks_rejected = 0)
                                   and (T.sor_reapply = 'N')
                                   and (T.sor_reason in ('NP', 'NU', 'NT', 'HT')))
                                   then T.CNT else 0 end) as "Before Steering",
               sum(case when(sor_reason in ('NP', 'HT', 'T2', 'TM', 'NM', 'MM', 'IPMM', 'NPMM'))
                              then T.CNT else 0 end) as "After Steering"
          FROM     ST_INC T,
                    NETWORKS N,
                    ZONE_NW_MAP ZN,
                    ZONES Z,
                    PAYMENT_TYPE PT
          WHERE      T.FOREIGN_NETWORK_ID = N.NETWORK_ID
          AND      ZN.NETWORK_ID = N.NETWORK_ID
          AND      Z.ZONE_ID = ZN.ZONE_ID
          AND      PT.id = T.ptype
          AND opcode = 2
          AND      sor_action is not null
                         and Z.ZONE_ID = 269
               group by
                         date_format(T.ARRIVAL_DATE,'%v-%x'),
T.foreign_network_id
order by date_format(T.ARRIVAL_DATE,'%v-%x')
Above code works but it orders malfunctionally. It orders as if the week-day combination is a string not a date.
I want:
09.2009
10.2009
02.2010
03.2010
06.2011
It outputs:
02.2010
03.2010
06.2011
09.2009
10.2009
I know that the problem arises from the "order by" part. When I call the function date_format I guess a different data type is returnd thus the result is not achieved as intended. So I thought of changing that part only making last line order by T.ARRIVAL_DATE. It worked fine in mysql however it gave error in oracle. This is the error:
ORA-00979: not a GROUP BY expression
00979. 00000 - "not a GROUP BY expression"
When I replace all "date_format(T.ARRIVAL_DATE,'%v-%x')" s with "T.ARRIVAL_DATE" it works fine again. However this is not what i wanted. I want to see the results in the format I gave and group with respect to that fomat, additionally ordering them chronologically. How is that possible?

Answer 1

Frank Kulash wrote:
Hi,
baydinfb wrote:
Hi,
SELECT
                         T.foreign_network_id as "Network ID",
                         date_format(T.ARRIVAL_DATE,'%v-%x') as "Date",
                    sum(case when((networks_rejected = 0)
                                   and (T.sor_reapply = 'N')
                                   and (T.sor_reason in ('NP', 'NU', 'NT', 'HT')))
                                   then T.CNT else 0 end) as "Before Steering",
               sum(case when(sor_reason in ('NP', 'HT', 'T2', 'TM', 'NM', 'MM', 'IPMM', 'NPMM'))
                              then T.CNT else 0 end) as "After Steering"
          FROM     ST_INC T,
                    NETWORKS N,
                    ZONE_NW_MAP ZN,
                    ZONES Z,
                    PAYMENT_TYPE PT
          WHERE      T.FOREIGN_NETWORK_ID = N.NETWORK_ID
          AND      ZN.NETWORK_ID = N.NETWORK_ID
          AND      Z.ZONE_ID = ZN.ZONE_ID
          AND      PT.id = T.ptype
          AND opcode = 2
          AND      sor_action is not null
                         and Z.ZONE_ID = 269
               group by
                         date_format(T.ARRIVAL_DATE,'%v-%x'),
T.foreign_network_id
order by date_format(T.ARRIVAL_DATE,'%v-%x')
Above code works but it orders malfunctionally. It orders as if the week-day combination is a string not a date. Apparantly, date_format returns a string, similar to how TO_CHAR in Oracle returns a string. To verify this, create a view where one on the columns is the results of date_format, and then describe that view.
I want:
09.2009
10.2009
02.2010
03.2010
06.2011
It outputs:
02.2010
03.2010
06.2011
09.2009
10.2009
I know that the problem arises from the "order by" part. When I call the function date_format I guess a different data type is returnd thus the result is not achieved as intended. So I thought of changing that part only making last line order by T.ARRIVAL_DATE. It worked fine in mysql however it gave error in oracle. This is the error:
ORA-00979: not a GROUP BY expression
00979. 00000 - "not a GROUP BY expression"
When I replace all "date_format(T.ARRIVAL_DATE,'%v-%x')" s with "T.ARRIVAL_DATE" it works fine again. However this is not what i wanted. I want to see the results in the format I gave and group with respect to that fomat, additionally ordering them chronologically. How is that possible?I don't know about yur database, but in Oracle you can "GROUP BY t.arrival_date", and still use expressions like "TO_CHAR (t.arrival_date, ...)" in the SELECT clause. Then, if you say "ORDER BY t.arrival_date" it will sort by the arrival_date column in the table, even if the alias "arrival_date" is used for something else.
Using scott.emp to illustrate:
SELECT       TO_CHAR (e.hiredate, 'fmMonth YYYY')     AS hiredate
,       e.hiredate                    AS raw_date
FROM       scott.emp     e
GROUP BY  e.hiredate
ORDER BY  hiredate          -- This means the result set column called "HIREDATE"
,       e.hiredate          -- This means the table column called "HIREDATE"
;Output:
HIREDATE                                  RAW_DATE
April 1981                                02-Apr-1981 00:00:00
April 1987                                19-Apr-1987 00:00:00
December 1980                             17-Dec-1980 00:00:00
December 1981                             03-Dec-1981 00:00:00
February 1981                             20-Feb-1981 00:00:00
February 1981                             22-Feb-1981 00:00:00
January 1982                              23-Jan-1982 00:00:00
June 1981                                 09-Jun-1981 00:00:00
May 1981                                  01-May-1981 00:00:00
May 1987                                  23-May-1987 00:00:00
November 1981                             17-Nov-1981 00:00:00
September 1981                            08-Sep-1981 00:00:00
September 1981                            28-Sep-1981 00:00:00Notice how, within a month (e.g. February 1981) the rows are sorted by DATE.Thanks for the answers, I tried, no errors but there is a problem with the requirements. Correct me if I am wrong.
I can use the expression with "date_format" or "to_char" in select clause and then group by the actual date field. But this does not include all I want. When I formatted a date column as "week-year" such as 09.2010 I also meant to group by according to that format. In your solution totally same dates are grouped together but I want to be able to have that same weeks(no need to have same days) are grouped or even same months are grouped by and then order by actual date.
Edited by: baydinfb on Aug 27, 2010 2:13 PM