Question

I am trying to return results that replace record Ids with their more human readable description values. Changing the column names via AS is simple enough but I think a subquery is going to be needed to take an ID values such as PT1 and get the Description value as a replacement.

For instance I have a table1 with some columns like:

id| Paper | Coating | CreatedOn | Type

1 | pid3 | cid5 | some date | tid2
2 | pid2 | cid8 | some date | tid3
3 | pid1 | cid1 | some date | tid4

Then table2 has details on the reference id in the parent table:

id| fKey | description |

1 | pid3 | some user friendly description |
1 | pid1 | some other description |
1 | pid2 | something else |

Similar for tables three and four

I tried to use a JOIN linking the Paper IDs but this returned no values

SELECT table1.Paper as ‘Paper Name’, table1.Coating, table1.CreatedOn, table1.Type, table2.description
FROM table1
JOIN table2 ON table1.Paper = table2.fKey

My actual query is as shown but the table names were altered:

SELECT PD_ComboRun.RNId AS 'RUN #', PD_ComboRun.RNQty AS Quantity,
       PD_ComboRun.PTId, PD_ComboRun.PSId AS Size, PD_ComboRun.RNType AS 'Run Type',
       PD_ComboRun.PCId AS 'Press Coating', PD_ComboRun.UVFid AS 'UV Finish',
       PD_ComboRun.Notes AS 'Special Instructions', PD_ComboRun.CreatedOn AS 'Date Created', 
       SM_PaperType.PTCode AS Paper, SM_PaperType.PTId AS Expr1
FROM  PD_ComboRun 
LEFT JOIN SM_PaperType ON SM_PaperType.PTId = PD_ComboRun.PTId

Can someone please point me the right direction to achieve this goal? Thanks!

Answer 1

This works perfectly as I presume you need. I modified it to use your tables and fields.

DECLARE @PD_ComboRun TABLE(RNId int,RNQty int,PTId varchar(10),
    PSId varchar(10),PCId varchar(10),UVFid varchar(10),createdOn smalldatetime, 
    RNType varchar(10),Notes varchar(MAX))
INSERT INTO @PD_ComboRun
SELECT 1,5,'pid3','psid1','cid5','uvid1',GETDATE(),'tid2',''
UNION ALL
SELECT 2,10,'pid2','psid2','cid8','uvid4',GETDATE(),'tid3','notes'
UNION ALL
SELECT 3,7,'pid1','psid1','cid1','uvid1',GETDATE(),'tid4',''

SELECT * FROM @PD_ComboRun

DECLARE @SM_PaperType TABLE(PTId varchar(10),PTCode varchar(50))
INSERT INTO @SM_PaperType
SELECT 'pid3','some user friendly description'
UNION ALL
SELECT 'pid2','some other description'
UNION ALL
SELECT 'pid1','something else'

SELECT * FROM @SM_PaperType

SELECT t1.RNId AS [Run #], t1.RNQty AS Quantity,
    t1.PTId,t1.PSId AS Size,t1.RNType AS [Run Type], 
    t1.PCId AS [Press Coating], t1.UVFid AS 'UV Finish', 
    t1.Notes AS 'Special Instructions',t1.createdOn AS 'Date Created',
    t2.PTCode AS Paper,t2.PTId AS Expr1
FROM @PD_ComboRun t1 INNER JOIN @SM_PaperType t2 ON t1.PTId=t2.PTId

RESULTS

@table1

1   5   pid3    psid1   cid5    uvid1   2012-05-31 17:45:00 tid2    
2   10  pid2    psid2   cid8    uvid4   2012-05-31 17:45:00 tid3    notes
3   7   pid1    psid1   cid1    uvid1   2012-05-31 17:45:00 tid4    

@table2

pid3    some user friendly description
pid2    some other description
pid1    something else

@combined