How to Find All Connected Subgraphs of an Undirected Graph

Problem:

Given a table with two columns containing identifiers, find all groups of identifiers that are connected to each other.

Example Table:

Desired Output:

Solution:

The following query uses a single recursive query to find all connected subgraphs:

WITH
CTE_Idents
AS
(
    SELECT Ident1 AS Ident
    FROM @T

    UNION

    SELECT Ident2 AS Ident
    FROM @T
)
,CTE_Pairs
AS
(
    SELECT Ident1, Ident2
    FROM @T
    WHERE Ident1 <> Ident2

    UNION

    SELECT Ident2 AS Ident1, Ident1 AS Ident2
    FROM @T
    WHERE Ident1 <> Ident2
)
,CTE_Recursive
AS
(
    SELECT
        CAST(CTE_Idents.Ident AS varchar(8000)) AS AnchorIdent 
        , Ident1
        , Ident2
        , CAST(','   Ident1   ','   Ident2   ',' AS varchar(8000)) AS IdentPath
        , 1 AS Lvl
    FROM 
        CTE_Pairs
        INNER JOIN CTE_Idents ON CTE_Idents.Ident = CTE_Pairs.Ident1

    UNION ALL

    SELECT 
        CTE_Recursive.AnchorIdent 
        , CTE_Pairs.Ident1
        , CTE_Pairs.Ident2
        , CAST(CTE_Recursive.IdentPath   CTE_Pairs.Ident2   ',' AS varchar(8000)) AS IdentPath
        , CTE_Recursive.Lvl   1 AS Lvl
    FROM
        CTE_Pairs
        INNER JOIN CTE_Recursive ON CTE_Recursive.Ident2 = CTE_Pairs.Ident1
    WHERE
        CTE_Recursive.IdentPath NOT LIKE CAST('%,'   CTE_Pairs.Ident2   ',%' AS varchar(8000))
)
,CTE_RecursionResult
AS
(
    SELECT AnchorIdent, Ident1, Ident2
    FROM CTE_Recursive
)
,CTE_CleanResult
AS
(
    SELECT AnchorIdent, Ident1 AS Ident
    FROM CTE_RecursionResult

    UNION

    SELECT AnchorIdent, Ident2 AS Ident
    FROM CTE_RecursionResult
)
SELECT
    CTE_Idents.Ident
    ,CASE WHEN CA_Data.XML_Value IS NULL 
    THEN CTE_Idents.Ident ELSE CA_Data.XML_Value END AS GroupMembers
    ,DENSE_RANK() OVER(ORDER BY 
        CASE WHEN CA_Data.XML_Value IS NULL 
        THEN CTE_Idents.Ident ELSE CA_Data.XML_Value END
    ) AS GroupID
FROM
    CTE_Idents
    CROSS APPLY
    (
        SELECT CTE_CleanResult.Ident ','
        FROM CTE_CleanResult
        WHERE CTE_CleanResult.AnchorIdent = CTE_Idents.Ident
        ORDER BY CTE_CleanResult.Ident FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE
    ) AS CA_XML(XML_Value)
    CROSS APPLY
    (
        SELECT CA_XML.XML_Value.value('.', 'NVARCHAR(MAX)')
    ) AS CA_Data(XML_Value)
WHERE
    CTE_Idents.Ident IS NOT NULL
ORDER BY Ident;

Sample Output:

Explanation:

• The query uses a recursive CTE to find all paths in the graph that follow the edges defined in the CTE_Pairs table.
• The CTE_Idents table contains all the unique identifiers in the graph.
• The CTE_CleanResult table extracts the connected identifiers for each anchor identifier.
• The final SELECT statement uses a combination of FOR XML PATH and CROSS APPLY to concatenate the connected identifiers for each group.
• DENSE_RANK() is used to assign unique Group IDs to each group.