Monthly Archives: April 2017

A Simple CROSS JOIN Example

99% of the queries I write to join tables wind up using JOIN (aka INNER JOIN) or LEFT JOIN so whenever there’s an opportunity to use one the other types, I get pretty excited 🙂. Today, that wound up being a CROSS JOIN.

Consider the following table containing charges:


DROP TABLE IF EXISTS charges;
CREATE TABLE charges (id INT PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT, amount DECIMAL(10,2));
INSERT INTO charges (amount) VALUES (18);
INSERT INTO charges (amount) VALUES (15);
INSERT INTO charges (amount) VALUES (27);
+—-+——–+
| id | amount |
+—-+——–+
| 1 | 18.00 |
| 2 | 15.00 |
| 3 | 27.00 |
+—-+——–+

view raw

Charges.txt

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How would you add add a column showing how much each charge represents as a percentage of the total charges?

Option 1: Using a subquery

One way to solve this is to use a subquery:


SELECT *, ROUND(amount / (SELECT SUM(amount) FROM charges) * 100) AS percent
FROM charges
+—-+——–+———+
| id | amount | percent |
+—-+——–+———+
| 1 | 18.00 | 30 |
| 2 | 15.00 | 25 |
| 3 | 27.00 | 45 |
+—-+——–+———+

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gistfile1.txt

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For each record, we divide the amount by the sum of all the amounts to get the percentage.

Option 2: Using a variable

Similar to the solution above, except here we save the sum of the amounts in a variable and then use that variable in the query:


SET @total := (SELECT SUM(amount) FROM charges);
SELECT *, ROUND(amount / @total * 100) AS percent
FROM charges;
+—-+——–+———+
| id | amount | percent |
+—-+——–+———+
| 1 | 18.00 | 30 |
| 2 | 15.00 | 25 |
| 3 | 27.00 | 45 |
+—-+——–+———+

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gistfile1.txt

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Option 3: Using CROSS JOIN

A cross join takes every row from the first table and joins it on every row in the second table. From w3resource.com:

cross-join-round.png

In this solution, we create a result set with one value (the sum of the amounts) and then cross join the charges table on it. That will add the total to each record, which we can then divide the amount by to get the percentage:


SELECT *, ROUND(amount / total * 100) AS percent
FROM charges
CROSS JOIN (SELECT SUM(amount) AS total FROM charges) t;
+—-+——–+——-+———+
| id | amount | total | percent |
+—-+——–+——-+———+
| 1 | 18.00 | 60.00 | 30 |
| 2 | 15.00 | 60.00 | 25 |
| 3 | 27.00 | 60.00 | 45 |
+—-+——–+——-+———+

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gistfile1.txt

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If we didn’t want the total column in the result, we could simply exclude it:


SELECT id, amount, ROUND(amount / total * 100) AS percent
FROM charges
CROSS JOIN (SELECT SUM(amount) AS total FROM charges) t;
+—-+——–+———+
| id | amount | percent |
+—-+——–+———+
| 1 | 18.00 | 30 |
| 2 | 15.00 | 25 |
| 3 | 27.00 | 45 |
+—-+——–+———+

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gistfile1.txt

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In this case there shouldn’t be any performance gains using the CROSS JOIN vs one of the other methods, but I find it more elegant than the subquery or variable solutions.

CROSS JOIN vs INNER JOIN

Note that CROSS JOIN and INNER JOIN do the same thing, it’s just that because we’re not joining on a specific column, the convention is to use CROSS JOIN. For example, this produces the same result as the last CROSS JOIN example:


SELECT id, amount, ROUND(amount / total * 100) AS percent
FROM charges
INNER JOIN (SELECT SUM(amount) AS total FROM charges) t;
+—-+——–+———+
| id | amount | percent |
+—-+——–+———+
| 1 | 18.00 | 30 |
| 2 | 15.00 | 25 |
| 3 | 27.00 | 45 |
+—-+——–+———+

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cross-vs-inner.txt

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And so does this:


SELECT id, amount, ROUND(amount / total * 100) AS percent
FROM charges, (SELECT SUM(amount) AS total FROM charges) t;
+—-+——–+———+
| id | amount | percent |
+—-+——–+———+
| 1 | 18.00 | 30 |
| 2 | 15.00 | 25 |
| 3 | 27.00 | 45 |
+—-+——–+———+

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gistfile1.txt

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So why use CROSS JOIN at all? Per a Stack Overflow thread:

Using CROSS JOIN vs (INNER) JOIN vs comma

The common convention is:

* Use CROSS JOIN when and only when you don’t compare columns between tables. That suggests that the lack of comparisons was intentional.
* Use (INNER) JOIN with ON when and only when you have comparisons between tables (plus possibly other comparisons).
* Don’t use comma.

Props this Stack Overflow question for the tip about using CROSS JOIN to solve this type of problem.

Removing Gaps from Stacked Area Charts in R

Creating a stacked area chart in R is fairly painless, unless your data has gaps. For example, consider the following CSV data showing the number of plan signups per week:


+————+———-+———+
| week | plan | signups |
+————+———-+———+
| 2017-01-26 | Bronze | 10 |
| 2017-01-26 | Gold | 55 |
| 2017-01-26 | Standard | 108 |
| 2017-02-05 | Bronze | 6 |
| 2017-02-05 | Iron | 1 |
| 2017-02-05 | Gold | 37 |
| 2017-02-05 | Standard | 142 |
| 2017-02-12 | Bronze | 17 |
| 2017-02-12 | Iron | 2 |
| 2017-02-12 | Gold | 42 |
| 2017-02-12 | Standard | 119 |
| 2017-02-19 | Bronze | 11 |
| 2017-02-19 | Gold | 26 |
| 2017-02-19 | Silver | 4 |
| 2017-02-19 | Platinum | 1 |
| 2017-02-19 | Standard | 70 |
| 2017-02-26 | Bronze | 13 |
| 2017-02-26 | Silver | 5 |
| 2017-02-26 | Standard | 52 |
+————+———-+———+

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signups-by-week.txt

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Plotting this highlights the problem:


library(ggplot2)
data <- read.csv("dummy-data.csv", sep = "\t")
g <- ggplot(data, aes(x = week, y = signups, group = plan, fill = plan)) +
geom_area()
print(g)

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stacked-area-chart-gaps.R

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chart.png

The reason the gaps exist is that not all plans have data points every week. Consider Gold, for example: during the first four weeks there are 55, 37, 42, and 26 signups, but during the last week there isn’t a data point at all. That’s why the chart shows the gap: it’s not that the data indicates Gold went to zero signups the final week; it indicates no data at all.

To remedy this, we need to ensure that every week contains a data point for every plan. That means for weeks where there isn’t a data point for a plan, we need to fill it in with 0 so that R knows that the signups are in fact 0 for that week.

I asked Charles Bordet, an R expert who I hired through Upwork to help me level up my R skills, how he would go about filling in the data.

He provided two solutions:

1. Using expand.grid and full_join


data <- read.csv("data.csv", sep = "\t")
weeks <- unique(data$week)
plans <- unique(data$plan)
combinations <- expand.grid(week = weeks, plan = plans)
data <- full_join(data, combinations, by = c("week" = "week", "plan" = "plan")) %>%
mutate(signups = ifelse(is.na(signups), 0, signups)) %>%
arrange(week, plan)
g <- ggplot(data, aes(x = week, y = signups, group = plan, fill = plan)) +
geom_area(position = "stack")
print(g)

view raw

stacke-area-chart-without-gaps-v1.R

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Here’s how it works:

expand.grid creates “a data frame from all combinations of the supplied vectors or factors”. By passing it in the weeks and plans, it generates the following data frame called combinations:


week plan
1 2017–01–26 Bronze
2 2017–02–05 Bronze
3 2017–02–12 Bronze
4 2017–02–19 Bronze
5 2017–02–26 Bronze
6 2017–01–26 Gold
7 2017–02–05 Gold
8 2017–02–12 Gold
9 2017–02–19 Gold
10 2017–02–26 Gold
11 2017–01–26 Standard
12 2017–02–05 Standard
13 2017–02–12 Standard
14 2017–02–19 Standard
15 2017–02–26 Standard
16 2017–01–26 Iron
17 2017–02–05 Iron
18 2017–02–12 Iron
19 2017–02–19 Iron
20 2017–02–26 Iron
21 2017–01–26 Silver
22 2017–02–05 Silver
23 2017–02–12 Silver
24 2017–02–19 Silver
25 2017–02–26 Silver
26 2017–01–26 Platinum
27 2017–02–05 Platinum
28 2017–02–12 Platinum
29 2017–02–19 Platinum
30 2017–02–26 Platinum

view raw

expand-grid-weeks-plans.R

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The full_join then takes all of the rows from data and combines them with combinations based on week and plan. When there aren’t any matches (which will happen when a week doesn’t have a value for a plan), signups gets set to NA:


week plan signups
1 2017-01-26 Bronze 10
2 2017-01-26 Gold 55
3 2017-01-26 Standard 108
4 2017-02-05 Bronze 6
5 2017-02-05 Iron 1
6 2017-02-05 Gold 37
7 2017-02-05 Standard 142
8 2017-02-12 Bronze 17
9 2017-02-12 Iron 2
10 2017-02-12 Gold 42
11 2017-02-12 Standard 119
12 2017-02-19 Bronze 11
13 2017-02-19 Gold 26
14 2017-02-19 Silver 4
15 2017-02-19 Platinum 1
16 2017-02-19 Standard 70
17 2017-02-26 Bronze 13
18 2017-02-26 Silver 5
19 2017-02-26 Standard 52
20 2017-02-26 Gold NA
21 2017-01-26 Iron NA
22 2017-02-19 Iron NA
23 2017-02-26 Iron NA
24 2017-01-26 Silver NA
25 2017-02-05 Silver NA
26 2017-02-12 Silver NA
27 2017-01-26 Platinum NA
28 2017-02-05 Platinum NA
29 2017-02-12 Platinum NA
30 2017-02-26 Platinum NA

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full-join-example.txt

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Then we just use dplyr’s mutate to replace all of the NA values with zero, and voila:


week plan signups
1 2017-01-26 Bronze 10
2 2017-01-26 Gold 55
3 2017-01-26 Iron 0
4 2017-01-26 Platinum 0
5 2017-01-26 Silver 0
6 2017-01-26 Standard 108
7 2017-02-05 Bronze 6
8 2017-02-05 Gold 37
9 2017-02-05 Iron 1
10 2017-02-05 Platinum 0
11 2017-02-05 Silver 0
12 2017-02-05 Standard 142
13 2017-02-12 Bronze 17
14 2017-02-12 Gold 42
15 2017-02-12 Iron 2
16 2017-02-12 Platinum 0
17 2017-02-12 Silver 0
18 2017-02-12 Standard 119
19 2017-02-19 Bronze 11
20 2017-02-19 Gold 26
21 2017-02-19 Iron 0
22 2017-02-19 Platinum 1
23 2017-02-19 Silver 4
24 2017-02-19 Standard 70
25 2017-02-26 Bronze 13
26 2017-02-26 Gold 0
27 2017-02-26 Iron 0
28 2017-02-26 Platinum 0
29 2017-02-26 Silver 5
30 2017-02-26 Standard 52

view raw

stacked-area-chart-data-without-gaps.txt

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2. Using spread and gather

The second method Charles provided uses the tidyr package’s spread and gather functions:


data <- read.csv("data.csv", sep = "\t")
data <- data %>%
tidyr::spread(key = plan, value = signups, fill = 0) %>%
tidyr::gather(key = plan, value = signups, – week) %>%
arrange(week, plan)
g <- ggplot(data, aes(x = week, y = signups, group = plan, fill = plan)) +
geom_area(position = "stack")
print(g)

view raw

stacked-area-chart-tidyr-solution.R

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The spread function takes the key-value pairs (week and plan in this case) and spreads it across multiple columns, making the “long” data “wider”, and filling in the missing values with 0:


week Bronze Gold Iron Platinum Silver Standard
1 2017-01-26 10 55 0 0 0 108
2 2017-02-05 6 37 1 0 0 142
3 2017-02-12 17 42 2 0 0 119
4 2017-02-19 11 26 0 1 4 70
5 2017-02-26 13 0 0 0 5 52

view raw

spread-data.txt

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Then we take the wide data and convert it back to long data using gather The - week means to exclude the week column when gathering the data that spread produced:


week plan signups
1 2017-01-26 Bronze 10
2 2017-01-26 Gold 55
3 2017-01-26 Iron 0
4 2017-01-26 Platinum 0
5 2017-01-26 Silver 0
6 2017-01-26 Standard 108
7 2017-02-05 Bronze 6
8 2017-02-05 Gold 37
9 2017-02-05 Iron 1
10 2017-02-05 Platinum 0
11 2017-02-05 Silver 0
12 2017-02-05 Standard 142
13 2017-02-12 Bronze 17
14 2017-02-12 Gold 42
15 2017-02-12 Iron 2
16 2017-02-12 Platinum 0
17 2017-02-12 Silver 0
18 2017-02-12 Standard 119
19 2017-02-19 Bronze 11
20 2017-02-19 Gold 26
21 2017-02-19 Iron 0
22 2017-02-19 Platinum 1
23 2017-02-19 Silver 4
24 2017-02-19 Standard 70
25 2017-02-26 Bronze 13
26 2017-02-26 Gold 0
27 2017-02-26 Iron 0
28 2017-02-26 Platinum 0
29 2017-02-26 Silver 5
30 2017-02-26 Standard 52

view raw

spread-and-gather.txt

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Using either methods, we get a stacked area chart without the gaps ⚡️:

chart.png