sql server - SQL recursive query that gets all ancestors of an item

Question

ID       parent_id   name
---------------------
1        2            first 
2        4            second
3        3            third
4        5            fourth
5        -           fifth

Ancestors list of first should be (2, 4, 5)

Answer 1

with name_tree as (
   select id, parent_id, name
   from the_unknown_table
   where id = 1 -- this is the starting point you want in your recursion
   union all
   select c.id, c.parent_id, c.name
   from the_unknown_table c
     join name_tree p on p.parent_id = c.id  -- this is the recursion
) 
select *
from name_tree
where id <> 1; -- exclude the starting point from the overall result

SQLFiddle: http://sqlfiddle.com/#!3/87d0c/1