On 12 Jun 2015, at 1:08am, david at andl.org wrote: > The question I'm trying to ask is whether recursive CTE (either as defined > in the standard or as implemented in SQLite) carries the full capability of > evaluating recursive queries on appropriate data structures, or are there > queries that are beyond what it can do?
I think your question can only be answered with "What you mean by "appropriate" ?". CTE is part of the 1999 SQL standard and as good a way as any to implement directed graphs in SQL. There are plenty of queries which can be expressed in a SQL database but can't be answered without a computer which can reprogram itself, e.g. The Halting Problem <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halting_problem> or without a ridiculously long processing time, e.g. The Travelling Salesman Problem <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelling_salesman_problem> . CTE is only one type of meta-programming and is not all-powerful. Simon.
