Use a CASE statement?
something like:
select case WHEN os ~* E'^windows' then 'windows'
WHEN os ~* E'server' then 'server'
WHEN os ~* E'nix$' then '*nix'
else 'other' end
as osval, count(*) from os_tbl group by osval order by osval;
The hard part is making sure your regexes cover all the bases, without duplication.
It still sounds like the value should be a reference to a unique value in a small table of operating system entries, then store the value, rather than the string, in the main table.
Susan
I'll give this a shot. looks like it will work well. Regexes, I don't mind, SQL, I'm new at. Much less the pg functions.
thanks to both you and bricklin.