Syntax error using the WITH clause - sql

Question

I am trying to setup a CTE table with a series of quarterly dates.
The query returns [42601] ERROR: syntax error at or near "values" Position: 38
with q(qqyy, firstday, lastday) as (
values
('Q4_10', '09-30-2010', '12-31-2010'),
('Q1_11', '12-31-2010', '03-31-2011'),
('Q2_11', '03-31-2011', '06/30/2011'),
('Q3_11', '06/30/2011', '09/30/2011'),
('Q4_11', '09/30/2011', '12/31/2011'),
('Q1_12', '12/31/2011', '03/31/2012'),
('Q2_12', '03/31/2012', '06/30/2012'),
('Q3_12', '06/30/2012', '09/30/2012'),
('Q4_12', '09/30/2012', '12/31/2012'),
('Q1_13', '12/31/2012', '03/31/2013'),
('Q2_13', '03/31/2013', '06/30/2013'),
('Q3_13', '06/30/2013', '09/30/2013'),
('Q4_13', '09/30/2013', '12/31/2013'),
('Q1_14', '12/31/2013', '03/31/2014'),
('Q2_14', '03/31/2014', '06/30/2014'),
('Q3_14', '06/30/2014', '09/30/2014'),
('Q4_14', '09/30/2014', '12/31/2014'),
('Q1_15', '12/31/2014', '03/31/2015'),
('Q2_15', '03/31/2015', '06/30/2015'),
('Q3_15', '06/30/2015', '09/30/2015'),
('Q4_15', '09/30/2015', '12/31/2015'),
('Q1_16', '12/31/2015', '03/31/2016'),
('Q2_16', '03/31/2016', '06/30/2016'),
('Q3_16', '06/30/2016', '09/30/2016'),
('Q4_16', '09/30/2016', '12/31/2016')
)
SELECT q.qqyy, cobrand_id, sum(calc)
into temp_08.cmg_calc
from temp_08.cmg s
join q on
s.transaction_date >= q.firstday
and s.transaction_date <= q.lastday
GROUP BY q.qqyy, cobrand_id;
It appears that the above query is getting stuck on "values" due to Redshift using an older version of postgresql (http://docs.aws.amazon.com/redshift/latest/dg/c_unsupported-postgresql-features.html). But for some reason the below query that also uses "values" works fine. Any idea how I can get the above query to work using redshift?
create table temp_08.cmgquarters (
quarter_col text
, date_from date
, date_to date
);
insert into temp_08.cmgquarters
values
('Q4_10', '09-30-2010', '12-31-2010'),
('Q1_11', '12-31-2010', '03-31-2011'),
('Q2_11', '03-31-2011', '06/30/2011'),
('Q3_11', '06/30/2011', '09/30/2011'),
('Q4_11', '09/30/2011', '12/31/2011'),
('Q1_12', '12/31/2011', '03/31/2012'),
('Q2_12', '03/31/2012', '06/30/2012'),
('Q3_12', '06/30/2012', '09/30/2012'),
('Q4_12', '09/30/2012', '12/31/2012'),
('Q1_13', '12/31/2012', '03/31/2013'),
('Q2_13', '03/31/2013', '06/30/2013'),
('Q3_13', '06/30/2013', '09/30/2013'),
('Q4_13', '09/30/2013', '12/31/2013'),
('Q1_14', '12/31/2013', '03/31/2014'),
('Q2_14', '03/31/2014', '06/30/2014'),
('Q3_14', '06/30/2014', '09/30/2014'),
('Q4_14', '09/30/2014', '12/31/2014'),
('Q1_15', '12/31/2014', '03/31/2015'),
('Q2_15', '03/31/2015', '06/30/2015'),
('Q3_15', '06/30/2015', '09/30/2015'),
('Q4_15', '09/30/2015', '12/31/2015'),
('Q1_16', '12/31/2015', '03/31/2016'),
('Q2_16', '03/31/2016', '06/30/2016'),
('Q3_16', '06/30/2016', '09/30/2016'),
('Q4_16', '09/30/2016', '12/31/2016');

Answer 1

With Redshift not supporting the values() as a "table replacement" you need to re-write that as a union:
with q(qqyy, firstday, lastday) as (
select 'Q4_10', '09-30-2010', '12-31-2010' union all
select 'Q1_11', '12-31-2010', '03-31-2011' union all
....
)
SELECT ...;
you should however user proper DATE literals:
with q(qqyy, firstday, lastday) as (
select 'Q4_10', DATE '2010-09-30', DATE '2010-12-31' union all
select 'Q1_11', DATE '2010-12-31', DATE '2011-03-31' union all
....
)
SELECT ...;

Answer 2

I don't know Postgres well enough, but with SQL-Server you cannot use the VALUES like a table directly. You must use parenthesis around and provide a table alias with column names to define the derived table.
This would be something like this:
with q as (
select * from
(
values
('Q4_10', '09-30-2010', '12-31-2010'),
('Q1_11', '12-31-2010', '03-31-2011'),
('Q2_11', '03-31-2011', '06/30/2011'),
('Q3_11', '06/30/2011', '09/30/2011'),
('Q4_11', '09/30/2011', '12/31/2011'),
('Q1_12', '12/31/2011', '03/31/2012'),
('Q2_12', '03/31/2012', '06/30/2012'),
('Q3_12', '06/30/2012', '09/30/2012'),
('Q4_12', '09/30/2012', '12/31/2012'),
('Q1_13', '12/31/2012', '03/31/2013'),
('Q2_13', '03/31/2013', '06/30/2013'),
('Q3_13', '06/30/2013', '09/30/2013'),
('Q4_13', '09/30/2013', '12/31/2013'),
('Q1_14', '12/31/2013', '03/31/2014'),
('Q2_14', '03/31/2014', '06/30/2014'),
('Q3_14', '06/30/2014', '09/30/2014'),
('Q4_14', '09/30/2014', '12/31/2014'),
('Q1_15', '12/31/2014', '03/31/2015'),
('Q2_15', '03/31/2015', '06/30/2015'),
('Q3_15', '06/30/2015', '09/30/2015'),
('Q4_15', '09/30/2015', '12/31/2015'),
('Q1_16', '12/31/2015', '03/31/2016'),
('Q2_16', '03/31/2016', '06/30/2016'),
('Q3_16', '06/30/2016', '09/30/2016'),
('Q4_16', '09/30/2016', '12/31/2016')
) AS tbl(qqyy, firstday, lastday)
)
SELECT *
from q
Attention
You are in high danger!
You are using culture dependant date formats. This might work in your system, but break on another one...
Further more, your are not even consistent!
Your VALUES provide your date values as string.
In SQL-Server I'd suggest to use ISO8601, unseparated or - my favourite - ODBC. But I'm sure there are culture independent formats for literal dates in Postgres too.
And I would suggest to let the CTE come back with typed values or use a temp table with typed columns.