So you have 5 tables each with 2 columns. First column is date and the second one is a variable. Why can't you just join the tables and get one large table with 5 different variables and one date?.

After you are done with that - you said you want to compare values across these 5 variables. Do you want to compare all rows or do you know how many rows you would want? If you know the dates upfront just pull those dates in a where clause (can be done in the first step also). Once you get the required rows you would retrieve the results row by row and write out your results using the script. (if it is all rows then just do it row by row for the entire table). In all cases there is only one SQL call

I could be missing something important here, hopefully this points you in some good direction!

cheers

SK


In reply to Re: Efficient Data Comparison by sk
in thread Efficient Data Comparison by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.