Re: SELECT DISTINCT ... ORDER BY problem

David Fetter wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 08, 2008 at 11:16:29PM -0000, David Rowley wrote:
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: pgsql-general-owner@postgresql.org [mailto:pgsql-general-
>>> owner@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of Madison Kelly
>>> Sent: 08 December 2008 22:19
>>> To: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
>>> Subject: [GENERAL] SELECT DISTINCT ... ORDER BY problem
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>>    I've got a table that I am trying to SELECT DISTINCT on one column
>>> and ORDER BY on a second column, but am getting the error:
>>>
>>> SELECT DISTINCT ON expressions must match initial ORDER BY expressions
>>>
>>>    I can't add the second column to the DISTINCT clause because every
>>> row is unique. Likewise, I can't add the first column to my ORDER BY as
>>> it'd not sort the way I need it to.
>>>
>>>    Here is a simplified version of my query:
>>>
>>> \d table
>>>                      Table "table"
>>>       Column      |  Type   |                   Modifiers
>>>
>>> -----------------+---------+----------------------------------------------
>>> --
>>>   tbl_id          | integer | not null default
>>> nextval('tbl_seq'::regclass)
>>>   foo             | text    |
>>>   bar             | text    |
>>>
>>> SELECT DISTINCT ON (foo) foo, bar FROM table WHERE bar < '2008-12-07
>>> 16:32:46' AND tbl_id=153 ORDER BY bar LIMIT 1;
>>>
>> To make the query valid you would have to ORDER BY foo,bar
>> DISTINCT ON in this case is only going to show the first bar value for each
>> foo.
>>
>> Is tbl_id not your PK and only giving 1 row anyway?
>>
>>>    I understand from:
>>>
>>> http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-sql/2007-02/msg00169.php
>>>
>>>    That this is not really possible because the any given 'foo' column
>>> could match multiple 'bar' columns, so what do you search by? However,
>>> it's made some sort of decision as a value is shown in 'bar' for each
>>> 'foo'.
>>>
>>>    So my question is two-fold:
>>>
>>> 1. Can I not say, somehow, "sort all results by 'bar', and return the
>>> first/last 'bar' for each distinct 'foo'?
>>>
>>> 2. Can I somehow say "Order the results using the value of 'bar' you
>>> return, regardless of where it came from"?
>> You can nest queries:
>>
>> SELECT foo,bar
>> FROM (SELECT DISTINCT ON (foo) foo,
>>                                Bar
>>       FROM table
>>       WHERE bar < '2008-12-07 16:32:46'
>>         AND tbl_id=153 ORDER BY foo,bar
>> ) AS t ORDER BY bar;
>>
>> Notice that I'm only applying the final order by in the outer query.
>
> When we get windowing functions, a lot of this pain will go away :)
>
> Cheers,
> David.

Oh?

   I can't say I've been keeping up with what is in the pipes. What is
windowing?

Madi