Re: Pet Peeves?

	Gregory Stark wrote:

> Is it the hierarchical query ability you're looking for or pivot?
> The former we are actually getting in 8.4. 
> 
> AFAIK even in systems with pivot you still have to
> declare a fixed list of columns in advance anyways.
> Do you see a system where it works differently?

MS-Access SQL has a TRANSFORM clause that allows for crosstab queries 
without the need to know in advance the number of columns:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb208956.aspx

As for Oracle, it wasn't possible until recently but now 11g has the 
PIVOT clause:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/articles/oracle-database-11g-top-f 
eatures/11g-pivot.html

In contrast of these clauses, PG's contrib/tablefunc looks more limited 
and quite harder to use.

 Best regards,
-- 
 Daniel
 PostgreSQL-powered mail user agent and storage: 
http://www.manitou-mail.org