Difference between last and second last event in a table of events - sql

Question

I have the following table
which created by
create table events (
event_type integer not null,
value integer not null,
time timestamp not null,
unique (event_type, time)
);
given the data in the pic, I want to write a query that for each event_type that has been
registered more than once returns the difference between the latest and
the second latest value.
Given the above data, the output should be like
event_type value
2 -5
3 4
I solved it using the following :
CREATE VIEW [max_date] AS
SELECT event_type, max(time) as time, value
FROM events
group by event_type
having count(event_type) >1
order by time desc;
select event_type, value
from
(
select event_type, value, max(time)
from(
Select E1.event_type, ([max_date].value - E1.value) as value, E1.time
From events E1, [max_date]
Where [max_date].event_type = E1.event_type
and [max_date].time > E1.time
)
group by event_type
)
but this seems like a very complicated query and I wonder if there is an easier way?

Answer 1

Use window functions:
select e.*,
(value - prev_value)
from (select e.*,
lag(value) over (partition by event_type order by time) as prev_value,
row_number() over (partition by event_type order by time desc) as seqnum
from events e
) e
where seqnum = 1 and prev_value is not null;

Answer 2

You could use lag() and row_number()
select event_type, val
from (
select
event_type,
value - lag(value) over(partition by event_type order by time desc) val,
row_number() over(partition by event_type order by time desc) rn
from events
) t
where rn = 1 and val is not null
The inner query ranks records having the same event_type by descending time, and computes the difference between each value and the previous one.
Then, the outer query just filters on the top record per group.

Answer 3

Here is a way to do this using a combination of analytic functions and aggregation. This approach is friendly in the event that your database does not support LEAD and LAG.
WITH cte AS (
SELECT *, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY event_type ORDER BY time DESC)
FROM events
)
SELECT
event_type,
MAX(CASE WHEN rn = 1 THEN value END) - MAX(CASE WHEN rn = 2 THEN value END) AS value
FROM cte
GROUP BY
event_type
HAVING
COUNT(*) > 1;