Hur tolkas sql med rekursivt uttalande?

Det sker ingen "rekursion" här och jag tror att det är här man blir förvirrad.

Från PostgreSQL-dokumentationen:http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.4/static/queries-with.html

Note: Strictly speaking, this process is iteration not recursion, 
but RECURSIVE is the terminology chosen by the SQL standards committee.

För att parafrasera denna mening, en WITH RECURSIVE kan ses som en enkel WHILE loop.

WITH RECURSIVE t(n) AS (
  VALUES (1)
  UNION ALL
  SELECT n+1 FROM t WHERE n < 100
)
SELECT * FROM t;

Här är lite skräddarsydd pseudokod för att förklara denna process i detalj

# Step 1: initialisation
LET cte_result = EMPTY
LET working_table = VALUES (1)
LET intermediate_table = EMPTY

# Step 2: result initialisation, merge initialisation into cte_result
cte_result = cte_result UNION working_table

# Step 3: iteration test
WHILE (working_table is not empty) DO
    # Step 4: iteration select, we substitute the self-reference with working_table
    intermediate_table = SELECT n+1 FROM working_table WHERE n < 100

    # Step 5: iteration merge, merge the iteration result into cte_result
    cte_result = cte_result UNION intermediate_table

    # Step 6: iteration end, prepare for next iteration
    working_table = intermediate_table
    intermediate_table = EMPTY
END WHILE

# Step 7: return
RETURN cte_result

Och med ett exempel

# Step 1: initialisation
cte_result: EMPTY    | working_table: 1        | intermediate_table: EMPTY

# Step 2: result initialisation
cte_result: 1        | working_table: 1        | intermediate_table: EMPTY

# Step 3: iteration test
count(working_table) = 1 # OK
# Step 4: iteration select
cte_result: 1             | working_table: 1        | intermediate_table: 2
# Step 5: iteration merge
cte_result: 1, 2          | working_table: 1        | intermediate_table: 2
# Step 6: iteration end
cte_result: 1, 2          | working_table: 2        | intermediate_table: EMPTY

# Step 3: iteration test
count(working_table) = 1 # OK
# Step 4: iteration select
cte_result: 1, 2         | working_table: 2        | intermediate_table: 3
# Step 5: iteration merge
cte_result: 1, 2, 3      | working_table: 2        | intermediate_table: 3
# Step 6: iteration end
cte_result: 1, 2, 3      | working_table: 3        | intermediate_table: EMPTY

# … 97 more iterations and you get this state
cte_result: 1, 2, …, 100  | working_table: 100       | intermediate_table: EMPTY

# Step 3: iteration test
count(working_table) = 1 # OK
# Step 4: iteration select, the iteration query does not return any rows due to the WHERE clause
cte_result: 1, 2, …, 100  | working_table: 100       | intermediate_table: EMPTY
# Step 5: iteration merge, nothing is merged into the cte_result
cte_result: 1, 2, …, 100  | working_table: 100       | intermediate_table: EMPTY
# Step 6: iteration end
cte_result: 1, 2, …, 100  | working_table: EMPTY | intermediate_table: EMPTY

# Step 3: iteration test
count(working_table) = 0 # STOP

# Step 7: return
cte_result: 1, 2, …, 100

Så resultatet av CTE är alla siffror från 1 till 100.