SUM CASE when DISTINCT? - sql

Question

Joining two tables and grouping, we're trying to get the sum of a user's value but only include a user's value once if that user is represented in a grouping multiple times.
Some sample tables:
user table:
| id | net_worth |
------------------
| 1 | 100 |
| 2 | 1000 |
visit table:
| id | location | user_id |
-----------------------------
| 1 | mcdonalds | 1 |
| 2 | mcdonalds | 1 |
| 3 | mcdonalds | 2 |
| 4 | subway | 1 |
We want to find the total net worth of users visiting each location. User 1 visited McDonalds twice, but we don't want to double count their net worth. Ideally we can use a SUM but only add in the net worth value if that user hasn't already been counted for at that location. Something like this:
-- NOTE: Hypothetical query
SELECT
location,
SUM(CASE WHEN DISTINCT user.id then user.net_worth ELSE 0 END) as total_net_worth
FROM visit
JOIN user on user.id = visit.user_id
GROUP BY 1;
The ideal output being:
| location | total_net_worth |
-------------------------------
| mcdonalds | 1100 |
| subway | 100 |
This particular database is Redshift/PostgreSQL, but it would be interesting if there is a generic SQL solution. Is something like the above possible?

Answer 1

You don't want to consider duplicate entries in the visits table. So, select distinct rows from the table instead.
SELECT
v.location,
SUM(u.net_worth) as total_net_worth
FROM (SELECT DISTINCT location, user_id FROM visit) v
JOIN user u on u.id = v.user_id
GROUP BY v.location
ORDER BY v.location;

Answer 2

You can use a window function to get the unique users, then join that to the user table:
select v.location, sum(u.net_worth)
from "user" u
join (
select location, user_id,
row_number() over (partition by location, user_id) as rn
from visit
order by user_id, location, id
) v on v.user_id = u.id and v.rn = 1
group by v.location;
The above is standard ANSI SQL, in Postgres this can also be expressed using distinct on ()
select v.location, sum(u.net_worth)
from "user" u
join (
select distinct on (user_id, location) *
from visit
order by user_id, location, id
) v on v.user_id = u.id
group by v.location;

Answer 3

You can join the user table with distinct values of location & user id combination like the below generic SQL.
SELECT v.location, SUM(u.net_worth)
FROM (SELECT location, user_id FROM visit GROUP BY location, user_id) v
JOIN user u on u.id = v.user_id
GROUP BY v.location;