Populating the Hierarchy

Let’s visualize our organizational chart before we start populating the Employee table with hierarchical data. Figure 7-1 shows the hierarchy of employees in our organization.

Hierarchical organizational chart

Figure 7-1. Hierarchical organizational chart

The first row added to a hierarchical table is always the root node of the tree, and there can be only one root. Additional rows beneath the root are then added as child and grandchild nodes, and so on. Nodes can be rearranged as needed by invoking methods on the hierarchyid values. The tree can grow both broad (with many siblings) and deep (with many descendants).

The GetRoot Method

We begin by inserting our ...

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