Brian,
> 3. I'm trying to eliminate the union, however I have two problems.
> A) I can't figure out how to have an 'or' clause in a single join that
> would fetch all the correct rows. If I just do:
> LEFT OUTER JOIN table2 t2 ON (t2.real_id = t.id OR t2.real_id =
> t.backup_id), I end up with many less rows than the original query. B.
>
> I believe the issue with this is a row could have one of three
> possibilities:
> * part of the first query but not the second -> results in 1 row after
> the union
> * part of the second query but not the first -> results in 1 row after
> the union
> * part of the first query and the second -> results in 2 rows after the
> union (see 'B)' for why)
>
> B) the third and fourth column in the SELECT will need to be different
> depending on what column the row is joined on in the LEFT OUTER JOIN to
> table2, so I may need some expensive case when logic to filter what is
> put there based on whether that row came from the first join clause, or
> the second.
No, it doesn't:
SELECT t.id,
t.mycolumn1,
table3.otherid as otherid1,
table3a.otherid as otherid2,
t.mycolumn2
FROM t
LEFT OUTER JOIN table2
ON ( t.id = t2.real_id OR t.backup_id = t2.real_id )
LEFT OUTER JOIN table3
ON ( t.typeid = table3.id )
LEFT OUTER JOIN table3 as table3a
ON ( table2.third_id = table3.id )
WHERE t.external_id IN ( ... )
ORDER BY t.mycolumn2, t.id
--
Josh Berkus
PostgreSQL Experts Inc.
http://pgexperts.com