Duplicating Data Sets depending on input parameters

Question

I originally posted this question as part of Oracle Reports but I think its not really an Oracle Report issue, its more an SQL Issue. I am on Oracle 9i.
I need to generate a Report that is based on a maximum of 6 input parameters.
Three of them belong to Customer ID# and 3 belong to Number of Copies that need to be printed on the Report.
Parameters for Customers: P_CUST_ID1, P_CUST_ID2, P_CUST_ID3
Parameters for the Number of Copies: P_N1, P_N2, P_N3
So, at any given point, there could be a maximum of 3 Customer ID's passed to the main query. Here is an example of what the input parameters could look like.
User chose to enter values for Customer ID's 1 and 2 and left it blank for Customer 3.
Customer ID1   1001         Number of Copies   2
Customer ID2   1002         Number of Copies   3
Customer ID3   ----         Number of Copies   -The Query that retrieves data looks something like this. The query below is intended to fetch Customer Home and Office Addresses.
Of course, it is possible that there might be No home or Office Address or both.
SELECT    c.cust_no,
          c.saln||c.first_name||' '||c.last_name cust_name,
          a.address_type,
          a.street,
          a.city||' '||a.province||' '||a.postal_code city,
          '('||a.tel_area||') '||a.tel_number telephone
FROM      customer c, customer_address a
WHERE     c.cust_no = a.cust_no
AND       c.cust_no IN (:P_CUST_ID1, :P_CUST_ID2, :P_CUST_ID3);Based on my query:
Customer ID 1001 has 3 Addresses (2 Home and 1 Office) --> Total number of Records = 3
Customer ID 1002 has 2 Addresses (1 Home and 1 Office) --> Total number of Records = 2
The output should be something like this. I have put a Label Copy1, Copy2 and Copy3 to show
how the data will appear for readability.
Cust No Customer Name      Address Type    Address Line 1         Address Line 2        Telephone
Copy1
1001    Mr Robert Green    H               2100 Picket Fences     Vancouver BC V6E 2C9 [phone]
1001    Mr Robert Green    H               2300 Happy Valley      Vancouver BC V6G 2N8 [phone]
1001    Mr Robert Green    O               1200 Davie Street      Vancouver BC V1V 1X1 [phone]
Copy2
1001    Mr Robert Green    H               2100 Picket Fences     Vancouver BC V6E 2C9 [phone]
1001    Mr Robert Green    H               2300 Happy Valley      Vancouver BC V6G 2N8 [phone]
1001    Mr Robert Green    O               1200 Davie Street      Vancouver BC V1V 1X1 [phone]
Copy1
1002    Ms Cynthia Brown   H               261 King Street W      Calgary AB M5A 1N1   [phone]
1002    Ms Cynthia Brown   O               150 Bloor St W         Calgary AB M1W 1S3   [phone]
Copy2
1002    Ms Cynthia Brown   H               261 King Street W      Calgary AB M5A 1N1   [phone]
1002    Ms Cynthia Brown   O               150 Bloor St W         Calgary AB M1W 1S3   [phone]
Copy3
1002    Ms Cynthia Brown   H               261 King Street W      Calgary AB M5A 1N1   [phone]
1002    Ms Cynthia Brown   O               150 Bloor St W         Calgary AB M1W 1S3   [phone]Scripts for the table creation and INSERTs
CREATE TABLE CUSTOMER
    "CUST_NO"    VARCHAR2(4 BYTE) NOT NULL,
    "SALN"       VARCHAR2(4 BYTE),
    "FIRST_NAME" VARCHAR2(20 BYTE),
    "LAST_NAME"  VARCHAR2(20 BYTE),
    CONSTRAINT "CUSTOMER_PK" PRIMARY KEY ("CUST_NO")
Insert into CUSTOMER values ('1001','Mr','Robert','Green');
Insert into CUSTOMER values ('1002','Ms','Cynthia','Brown');
Insert into CUSTOMER values ('1003','Dr','David','Taylor');
CREATE TABLE CUSTOMER_ADDRESS
    "CUST_NO"      VARCHAR2(4 BYTE) NOT NULL ENABLE,
    "ADDRESS_TYPE" VARCHAR2(1 BYTE) NOT NULL ENABLE,
    "STREET"       VARCHAR2(20 BYTE),
    "CITY"         VARCHAR2(20 BYTE),
    "PROVINCE"     VARCHAR2(2 BYTE),
    "POSTAL_CODE"  VARCHAR2(10 BYTE),
    "TEL_AREA"     VARCHAR2(3 BYTE),
    "TEL_NUMBER"   VARCHAR2(10 BYTE)
Insert into CUSTOMER_ADDRESS values ('1001','H','2100 Picket Fences','Vancouver','BC','V6E 2C9','604','726-5555');
Insert into CUSTOMER_ADDRESS values ('1001','H','2300 Happy Valley','Vancouver','BC','V6G 2N8','604','308-5555');
Insert into CUSTOMER_ADDRESS values ('1001','O','1200 Davie Street','Vancouver','BC','V1V 1X1','604','211-5555');
Insert into CUSTOMER_ADDRESS values ('1002','H','261 King Street W','Calgary','AB','M5A 1N1','416','432-5555');
Insert into CUSTOMER_ADDRESS values ('1002','O','150 Bloor St W','Calgary','AB','M1W 1S3','416','321-5555');
Insert into CUSTOMER_ADDRESS values ('1003','O','435 Richmond Street','Calgary','AB','M5A 4T6','416','453-5555');Any help or pointers in this regard would be great.
I could have adopted a procedure to use Temporary tables but I really would prefer not going in that direction as there could be quite a few reports that need to be generated in this manner.
Thanks and have a great weekend.

Answer 1

Hi,
Roxyrollers wrote:
Hi Frank,
Here is my piece of code that I was working on Friday... Okay, but what's wrong with the solution I posted on Saturday?
WITH     report_parameters     AS
     SELECT  :p_cust_no_1 AS cust_no, :p_no_copies_1 AS no_copies  FROM dual  UNION ALL
     SELECT  :p_cust_no_2 AS cust_no, :p_no_copies_2 AS no_copies  FROM dual  UNION ALL
     SELECT  :p_cust_no_3 AS cust_no, :p_no_copies_3 AS no_copies  FROM dual
,     cntr          AS
     SELECT     LEVEL     AS n
     FROM     (
               SELECT  MAX (no_copies)     AS max_no_copies
               FROM     report_parameters
     CONNECT BY     LEVEL     <= max_no_copies
SELECT    c.cust_no,
          c.saln||c.first_name||' '||c.last_name cust_name,
          a.address_type,
          a.street,
          a.city||' '||a.province||' '||a.postal_code city,
          '('||a.tel_area||') '||a.tel_number telephone
,       t.n                -- If wanted
FROM      customer           c
,        customer_address   a
,       report_parameters  p
,       cntr               t
WHERE     c.cust_no           = a.cust_no
AND       c.cust_no           = p.cust_no
AND       p.no_copies          >= t.n
ORDER BY  c.cust_no
,       t.n
,            a.address_type
;Output, given your sample data and parameters:
CUST CUST_NAME       A STREET               CITY                      TELEPHONE                 N                                                    
1001 MrRobert Green  H 2100 Picket Fences   Vancouver BC V6E 2C9      [phone]            1                                                    
1001 MrRobert Green  H 2300 Happy Valley    Vancouver BC V6G 2N8      [phone]            1                                                    
1001 MrRobert Green  O 1200 Davie Street    Vancouver BC V1V 1X1      [phone]            1                                                    
1001 MrRobert Green  H 2100 Picket Fences   Vancouver BC V6E 2C9      [phone]            2                                                    
1001 MrRobert Green  H 2300 Happy Valley    Vancouver BC V6G 2N8      [phone]            2                                                    
1001 MrRobert Green  O 1200 Davie Street    Vancouver BC V1V 1X1      [phone]            2                                                    
1002 MsCynthia Brown H 261 King Street W    Calgary AB M5A 1N1        [phone]            1                                                    
1002 MsCynthia Brown O 150 Bloor St W       Calgary AB M1W 1S3        [phone]            1                                                    
1002 MsCynthia Brown H 261 King Street W    Calgary AB M5A 1N1        [phone]            2                                                    
1002 MsCynthia Brown O 150 Bloor St W       Calgary AB M1W 1S3        [phone]            2                                                    
1002 MsCynthia Brown H 261 King Street W    Calgary AB M5A 1N1        [phone]            3                                                    
1002 MsCynthia Brown O 150 Bloor St W       Calgary AB M1W 1S3        [phone]            3                                                     WITH DOES work in Oracle 9.1, and higher. Are you getting an error message that starts with "SP"? Those are SQL*Plus errors, that occur before your code is even sent to the database. In extremely old versions of SQL*Plus, a statement cannont begin with the keyword WITH. The best solution is to upgrade SQL*Plus, but you could also re-wqrite the query so WITH is not the first word of the statement. In this case, you could also use in-line views instead of WITH.
I tried to generate duplicate data sets as a Sub-Query like RP suggested and it seems to be working except the ordering seems to be messed up for Mr Robert Green. The correct order should have been Home, Home, Office and then Home, Home, Office again...The order above seems to be what you want, but there are many different reasons why a small set of sample data might just happen to appear in the right order.
Explain why you want that order. If you can say what you want in English, somebody can help you code it in SQL.
I don't recommend any solution that uses UNION. It will be inefficient, and difficult to debug and to maintain.