sql - Is it possible to query a tree structure table in MySQL in a single query, to any depth?

Question

I'm thinking the answer is no, but I'd love it it anybody had any insight into how to crawl a tree structure to any depth in SQL (MySQL), but with a single query

More specifically, given a tree structured table (id, data, data, parent_id), and one row in the table, is it possible to get all descendants (child/grandchild/etc), or for that matter all ancestors (parent/grandparent/etc) without knowing how far down or up it will go, using a single query?

Or is using some kind of recursion require, where I keep querying deeper until there are no new results?

Specifically, I'm using Ruby and Rails, but I'm guessing that's not very relevant.

Answer 1

Yes, this is possible, it's a called a Modified Preorder Tree Traversal, as best described here

Joe Celko's Trees and Hierarchies in SQL for Smarties

A working example (in PHP) is provided here

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/hierarchical-data-database/2/