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version of crosstab. This fixes a major deficiency in real-world use of the original version. Easiest to undestand with an illustration: Data: ------------------------------------------------------------------- select * from cth; id | rowid | rowdt | attribute | val ----+-------+---------------------+----------------+--------------- 1 | test1 | 2003-03-01 00:00:00 | temperature | 42 2 | test1 | 2003-03-01 00:00:00 | test_result | PASS 3 | test1 | 2003-03-01 00:00:00 | volts | 2.6987 4 | test2 | 2003-03-02 00:00:00 | temperature | 53 5 | test2 | 2003-03-02 00:00:00 | test_result | FAIL 6 | test2 | 2003-03-02 00:00:00 | test_startdate | 01 March 2003 7 | test2 | 2003-03-02 00:00:00 | volts | 3.1234 (7 rows) Original crosstab: ------------------------------------------------------------------- SELECT * FROM crosstab( 'SELECT rowid, attribute, val FROM cth ORDER BY 1,2',4) AS c(rowid text, temperature text, test_result text, test_startdate text, volts text); rowid | temperature | test_result | test_startdate | volts -------+-------------+-------------+----------------+-------- test1 | 42 | PASS | 2.6987 | test2 | 53 | FAIL | 01 March 2003 | 3.1234 (2 rows) Hashed crosstab: ------------------------------------------------------------------- SELECT * FROM crosstab( 'SELECT rowid, attribute, val FROM cth ORDER BY 1', 'SELECT DISTINCT attribute FROM cth ORDER BY 1') AS c(rowid text, temperature int4, test_result text, test_startdate timestamp, volts float8); rowid | temperature | test_result | test_startdate | volts -------+-------------+-------------+---------------------+-------- test1 | 42 | PASS | | 2.6987 test2 | 53 | FAIL | 2003-03-01 00:00:00 | 3.1234 (2 rows) Notice that the original crosstab slides data over to the left in the result tuple when it encounters missing data. In order to work around this you have to be make your source sql do all sorts of contortions (cartesian join of distinct rowid with distinct attribute; left join that back to the real source data). The new version avoids this by building a hash table using a second distinct attribute query. The new version also allows for "extra" columns (see the README) and allows the result columns to be coerced into differing datatypes if they are suitable (as shown above). In testing a "real-world" data set (69 distinct rowid's, 27 distinct categories/attributes, multiple missing data points) I saw about a 5-fold improvement in execution time (from about 2200 ms old, to 440 ms new). I left the original version intact because: 1) BC, 2) it is probably slightly faster if you know that you have no missing attributes. README and regression test adjustments included. If there are no objections, please apply. Joe Conway
PostgreSQL Database Management System ===================================== This directory contains the source code distribution of the PostgreSQL database management system. PostgreSQL is an advanced object-relational database management system that supports an extended subset of the SQL standard, including transactions, foreign keys, subqueries, triggers, user-defined types and functions. This distribution also contains several language bindings, including C, Perl, Python, and Tcl, as well as a JDBC driver. The ODBC and C++ interfaces have been moved to the PostgreSQL Projects Web Site at http://gborg.postgresql.org for separate maintenance. See the file INSTALL for instructions on how to build and install PostgreSQL. That file also lists supported operating systems and hardware platforms and contains information regarding any other software packages that are required to build or run the PostgreSQL system. Changes between all PostgreSQL releases are recorded in the file HISTORY. Copyright and license information can be found in the file COPYRIGHT. A comprehensive documentation set is included in this distribution; it can be read as described in the installation instructions. The latest version of this software may be obtained at ftp://ftp.postgresql.org/pub/. For more information look at our web site located at http://www.postgresql.org/.