CTE Running in Infinite Loop

Question

My CTE runs in an infinite loop for a specific customer and I am not able to find out why.

Here is the query:

;WITH ClassTree
           AS (SELECT ID, NAME, Parent_ID
               FROM   TableName
               WHERE  ID = 1
               UNION ALL
               SELECT T.ID, T.NAME, T.Parent_ID
               FROM   TableName T WITH (NOLOCK)
                      JOIN ClassTree
                        ON Parent_ID = ClassTree.ID
)
SELECT * FROM ClassTree

Answer 1

I think this should find the problem record for you. It adds a LEVEL to your hierarchy, then looks for an individual ID record that exists at multiple levels.

;WITH ClassTree
           AS (SELECT ID, NAME, Parent_ID, 1 as 'Level'
               FROM   TableName
               WHERE  ID = 1
               UNION ALL
               SELECT T.ID, T.NAME, T.Parent_ID, Level + 1 as 'Level'
               FROM   TableName T WITH (NOLOCK)
                      JOIN ClassTree
                        ON Parent_ID = ClassTree.ID
)

SELECT *
FROM ClassTree c1
WHERE EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM ClassTree c2
              WHERE c2.id = c1.id
              AND c2.Level > c1.level)

Answer 2

Here is a little something that you can use to find your cycles.

declare @T table
(
  ID int,
  Parent_ID int
)

insert into @T values
(1, 3),(2, 1),(3, 2),    -- This is a cycle
(4, 4),                  -- This is a cycle
(5, null),(6, 5),(7, 6)  -- This is not a cycle

;with C as
(
  select T.ID,
         T.Parent_ID,
         cast(',' + cast(ID as varchar(10)) + ',' as varchar(max)) as Path,
         0 Cycle
  from @T as T
  union all
  select T.ID,
         T.Parent_ID,
         C.Path + cast(T.ID as varchar(10)) + ',',
         case when C.Path like '%,'+cast(T.ID as varchar(10))+',%' 
           then 1 
           else 0 
         end
  from @T as T
    inner join C  
      on T.Parent_ID = C.ID
  where C.Cycle = 0
)
select *
from C
where Cycle = 1

Result:

ID          Parent_ID   Path       Cycle
----------- ----------- ---------- -----------
4           4           ,4,4,      1
3           2           ,3,1,2,3,  1
2           1           ,2,3,1,2,  1
1           3           ,1,2,3,1,  1

Answer 3

The very first thing I would do is change this:

JOIN ClassTree
     ON Parent_ID = ClassTree.ID 

to this:

JOIN ClassTree                         
     ON t.Parent_ID = ClassTree.ID 

It might be trying to join ClassTree to itself since you didn't specify the table alias in the join.