How to find the hierarchy path for a tree representation

Question

I have a tree hierarchy look this built into a table with the parent_id pointing to the previous root node.

I am iterating through all root nodes (root1, root2) and I am setting path to either root1 or root1/child1 for root1 and child1. In order to find the path for child1, I will have to make at-least 2 calls to form the path. Is there an efficient way to fill the path, since we deal with a very large number of root nodes and children which are nested 5-7 levels deep.

create table foo (id, name, parent_id, path)
insert into foo (1, "root1', null, null)
insert into foo (2, "child1', 1, null)

root1 (path = null)
  child1 (path = root1)
    subchild1 (path = root1/child1)

root2
   child2
     subchild2

Answer 1

You can go with a stored procedure as you have mentioned in your question as the nesting can be up to 7 level deep.

Stored Procedure

CREATE PROCEDURE updatePath()
BEGIN
declare cnt, n int;
    select count(*) into n from foo where parent_id is null;
    update foo a, foo b set a.path = b.name where b.parent_id is null and a.parent_id = b.id;
    select count(*) into cnt from foo where path is null;
    while cnt > n do
        update foo a, foo b set a.path = concat(b.path, '/', b.name) where b.path is not null and a.parent_id = b.id;
        select count(*) into cnt from foo where path is null;
    end while;
END//

To check the actual record we just printed the plain records having null value in path column

select * from foo

Results:

| ID |         NAME | PARENT_ID |   PATH |
------------------------------------------
|  1 |        root1 |    (null) | (null) |
|  2 |       child1 |         1 | (null) |
|  3 |    subchild1 |         2 | (null) |
|  4 |       child2 |         1 | (null) |
|  5 |       child3 |         1 | (null) |
|  6 |    subchild2 |         4 | (null) |
|  7 | subsubchild1 |         6 | (null) |

Calling the procedure:

call updatepath

Result after procedure execution:

select * from foo

Results:

| ID |         NAME | PARENT_ID |                   PATH |
----------------------------------------------------------
|  1 |        root1 |    (null) |                 (null) |
|  2 |       child1 |         1 |                  root1 |
|  3 |    subchild1 |         2 |           root1/child1 |
|  4 |       child2 |         1 |                  root1 |
|  5 |       child3 |         1 |                  root1 |
|  6 |    subchild2 |         4 |           root1/child2 |
|  7 | subsubchild1 |         6 | root1/child2/subchild2 |

SQLFIDDLE

Hope this helps....