I have the following table, which is actually the minimal example of the result of multiple joined tables. I now would like to group by 'person_ID' and get all the 'value' entries in one row, sorted after the feature_ID.
person_ID | feature_ID | value
123 | 1 | 1.1
123 | 2 | 1.2
123 | 3 | 1.3
123 | 4 | 1.2
124 | 1 | 1.0
124 | 2 | 1.1
...
The result should be:
123 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.2
124 | 1.0 | 1.1 | ...
There should exist an elegant SQL query solution, which I can neither come up with, nor find it.
For fast reconstruction that would be the example data:
create table example(person_ID integer, feature_ID integer, value float);
insert into example(person_ID, feature_ID, value) values
(123,1,1.1),
(123,2,1.2),
(123,3,1.3),
(123,4,1.2),
(124,1,1.0),
(124,2,1.1),
(124,3,1.2),
(124,4,1.4);
Edit: Every person has 6374 entries in the real life application.
I am using a PostgreSQL 8.3.23 database, but I think that should probably be solvable with standard SQL.
Data bases aren't much at transposing. There is a nebulous column growth issue at hand, I mean how does the data base deal with a variable number of columns? It's not a spread sheet.
This transposing of sorts is normally done in the report writer, not in SQL.
... or in a program, like in php.
Dynamic cross tab in sql only by procedure, see:
https://www.simple-talk.com/sql/t-sql-programming/creating-cross-tab-queries-and-pivot-tables-in-sql/
Related
How do I select rows in a table based on a key (PK) from another table. I have selected multiple polygons which is within a geografical region from one layer.
The attributes table from the selected layer look like this:
| Bloknr | Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 |
| 111-08 | xqyz | xyzq | qxyz |
| 208-09 | abc | cba | bca |
Where the row in question (row 1) is selected.
I now want to select this row from a nongeographic layer (from a postgresql database) with a table that looks like this:
| BLOKNR | Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 |
| 111-08 | cab | bac | cab |
| 208-09 | abc | cba | bca |
| 111-08 | cba | bca | cab |
Where the first and third row is to be selected.
There is about 20.000.000 rows in the postgres table and multiple matches on each bloknr
I work in qgis ver. 3.2 and postgresql with PGadmin4
Any help most appreciated.
UPDATE to answer the comments
It would be simple, if it was a matter of doing it within postgres - it's kind of made for that - but i cannot figure out how to query within qgis i would like not to have to export each table (I have a few, and for each i need multiple selection queries, based on geography) to postgresql - partly because i would like to keep the workflow in qgis, and partly because the export feature in the DB manager of qgis gives me this error - which i think means that i have to make all the tables manually.
" ERROR: function addgeometrycolumn(unknown, unknown, unknown,
integer, unknown, integer) does not exist LINE 1: SELECT
AddGeometryColumn('public','Test',NULL,0,'MULTIPOLYGO...
HINT: No function matches the given name and argument types. You might need to add explicit type casts."
So again any help appreciated.
So i have come up with an answer, that will work in theory.
First make the desired geographical selection and make a new layer with the selection
Then export the layer to the postgis database, with which you are connected
Now it is possible to make queries in postgresql - and PGadmin.
Note that this does not keep the workflow in qgis - and for further processing of statistics etc. one will have to work on the integration between the new postgis layer and selection within this - and it doesn't quite solve the geographical/mapbased selection approach - although it will work
I want to use the same labels from a SQLAlchemy table, to re-aggregate some data (e.g. I want to iterate through mytable.c to get the column names exactly).
I have some spending data that looks like the following:
| name | region | date | spending |
| John | A | .... | 123 |
| Jack | A | .... | 20 |
| Jill | B | .... | 240 |
I'm then passing it to an existing function we have, that aggregates spending over 2 periods (using a case statement) and groups by region:
grouped table:
| Region | Total (this period) | Total (last period) |
| A | 3048 | 1034 |
| B | 2058 | 900 |
The function returns a SQLAlchemy query object that I can then use subquery() on to re-query e.g.:
subquery = get_aggregated_data(original_table)
region_A_results = session.query(subquery).filter(subquery.c.region = 'A')
I want to then re-aggregate this subquery (summing every column that can be summed, replacing the region column with a string 'other'.
The problem is, if I iterate through subquery.c, I get labels that look like:
anon_1.region
anon_1.sum_this_period
anon_1.sum_last_period
Is there a way to get the textual label from a set of column objects, without the anon_1. prefix? Especially since I feel that the prefix may change depending on how SQLAlchemy decides to generate the query.
Split the name string and take the second part, and if you want to prepare for the chance that the name is not prefixed by the table name, put the code in a try - except block:
for col in subquery.c:
try:
print(col.name.split('.')[1])
except IndexError:
print(col.name)
Also, the result proxy (region_A_results) has a method keys which returns an a list of column names. Again, if you don't need the table names, you can easily get rid of them.
The Question
One thing that I am confused about is the technical definition of possibly the most basic component of a database: a single value.
Some Examples
I understand and follow (at a minimum) the first three normal forms of database normalization - or so I think. That said, with the introduction of RANGE in PostgreSQL 9.2 I started thinking about what makes a single value.
From the docs:
Range types are useful because they represent many element values in a single range value
So, what are you? Several values, or a single value... nothingness... 42?
Why does this matter?
Because is speaks directly to the Second Normal Form:
Create separate tables for sets of values that apply to multiple records.
Relate these tables with a foreign key.
#1 Ranges
For example, in Postgres 9.1 I had some tables structured like this:
"SomeSchema"."StatusType"
"StatusTypeID" | "StatusType"
--------------------|----------------
1 | Start
2 | Stop
"SomeSchema"."Statuses"
"StatusID" | "Identifier" | "StatusType" | "Value" | "Timestamp"
---------------|----------------|----------------|---------|---------------------
1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2000-01-01 00:00:00
2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2000-01-02 12:00:00
3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2000-01-01 00:00:00
4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2000-01-01 00:00:00
5 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 2000-01-01 18:30:00
6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2000-01-02 12:00:00
This enabled me to keep an historical record of how things were configured at any given point in time.
This structure takes the position that the data in the "Value" column were all separate values.
Now, in Postgres 9.2 if I do the same thing with a RANGE value it would look like this:
"SomeSchema"."Statuses"
"StatusID" | "Identifier" | "Value" | "Timestamp"
---------------|----------------|-------------|---------------------
1 | 1 | (0, NULL) | 2000-01-01 00:00:00
2 | 1 | (0, 5) | 2000-01-02 12:00:00
3 | 2 | (1, NULL) | 2000-01-01 00:00:00
4 | 3 | (2, NULL) | 2000-01-01 00:00:00
5 | 2 | (1, 7) | 2000-01-01 18:30:00
6 | 1 | (0, 3) | 2000-01-02 12:00:00
Again, this structure would enable me to keep an historical record of how things were configured, but I would be storing the same value several times in separate places. It makes updating (technically inserting a new record) more tricky because I have to make sure the data rolls over from the original record.
#2 Arrays
Arrays have been around for a long time, and while they can be abused, I tend to use them for things like color codes. For example, my project stores information and at times needs to know how to display it. I could create three columns to store red, green, and blue values; but that just seems silly. When would I ever create a foreign key (or even just filter) based on one of the given color codes.
When I created the field it was from the perspective that I needed to store a color in a neutral format so that I could feed anything that accepts a color value. I made the column an array and filled it with the appropriate codes to make the color I want.
#3 PostGIS: Geometry & Geography
When storing a polygon in PostGIS, it stores all the points that make the boundary in a single field. If one point were to change and I wanted to keep an historical record, I would have to store all of the points that have not changed twice in order to store the new polygon along with the old.
So, what is a value? and... if RANGE, ARRAY, and GEOGRAPHY are values do they really break the second normal form?
The fact that some operation can derive new values from X that appear to be components of X's value doesn't mean X itself isn't "single valued". Thus "range" values and "geography" values should be single values as far as the DBMSs type system is concerned. I don't know enough about Postgresql's implementation to know whether "arrays" can be considered as single values in themselves. SQL DBMSs like Postgresql are not truly relational DBMSs and SQL supports various structures that certainly aren't proper relation variables, values or types (pointers, nulls and other exotica).
This is a difficult and sometimes controversial topic however. If you haven't read it then I recommend the book Databases, Types, and the Relational Model - The Third Manifesto by Date and Darwen. It addresses exactly the kind of questions you are asking about.
I don't like your description of 2NF but it's not very relevant here.
I want to represent the list "hi", "hello", "goodbye", "good day", "howdy" (with that order), in a SQL table:
pk | i | val
------------
1 | 0 | hi
0 | 2 | hello
2 | 3 | goodbye
3 | 4 | good day
5 | 6 | howdy
'pk' is the primary key column. Disregard its values.
'i' is the "index" that defines that order of the values in the 'val' column. It is only used to establish the order and the values are otherwise unimportant.
The problem I'm having is with inserting values into the list while maintaining the order. For example, if I want to insert "hey" and I want it to appear between "hello" and "goodbye", then I have to shift the 'i' values of "goodbye" and "good day" (but preferably not "howdy") to make room for the new entry.
So, is there a standard SQL pattern to do the shift operation, but only shift the elements that are necessary? (Note that a simple "UPDATE table SET i=i+1 WHERE i>=3" doesn't work, because it violates the uniqueness constraint on 'i', and also it updates the "howdy" row unnecessarily.)
Or, is there a better way to represent the ordered list? I suppose you could make 'i' a floating point value and choose values between, but then you have to have a separate rebalancing operation when no such value exists.
Or, is there some standard algorithm for generating string values between arbitrary other strings, if I were to make 'i' a varchar?
Or should I just represent it as a linked list? I was avoiding that because I'd like to also be able to do a SELECT .. ORDER BY to get all the elements in order.
As i read your post, I kept thinking 'linked list'
and at the end, I still think that's the way to go.
If you are using Oracle, and the linked list is a separate table (or even the same table with a self referencing id - which i would avoid) then you can use a CONNECT BY query and the pseudo-column LEVEL to determine sort order.
You can easily achieve this by using a cascading trigger that updates any 'index' entry equal to the new one on the insert/update operation to the index value +1. This will cascade through all rows until the first gap stops the cascade - see the second example in this blog entry for a PostgreSQL implementation.
This approach should work independent of the RDBMS used, provided it offers support for triggers to fire before an update/insert. It basically does what you'd do if you implemented your desired behavior in code (increase all following index values until you encounter a gap), but in a simpler and more effective way.
Alternatively, if you can live with a restriction to SQL Server, check the hierarchyid type. While mainly geared at defining nested hierarchies, you can use it for flat ordering as well. It somewhat resembles your approach using floats, as it allows insertion between two positions by assigning fractional values, thus avoiding the need to update other entries.
If you don't use numbers, but Strings, you may have a table:
pk | i | val
------------
1 | a0 | hi
0 | a2 | hello
2 | a3 | goodbye
3 | b | good day
5 | b1 | howdy
You may insert a4 between a3 and b, a21 between a2 and a3, a1 between a0 and a2 and so on. You would need a clever function, to generate an i for new value v between p and n, and the index can become longer and longer, or you need a big rebalancing from time to time.
Another approach could be, to implement a (double-)linked-list in the table, where you don't save indexes, but links to previous and next, which would mean, that you normally have to update 1-2 elements:
pk | prev | val
------------
1 | 0 | hi
0 | 1 | hello
2 | 0 | goodbye
3 | 2 | good day
5 | 3 | howdy
hey between hello & goodbye:
hey get's pk 6,
pk | prev | val
------------
1 | 0 | hi
0 | 1 | hello
6 | 0 | hi <- ins
2 | 6 | goodbye <- upd
3 | 2 | good day
5 | 3 | howdy
the previous element would be hello with pk=0, and goodbye, which linked to hello by now has to link to hey in future.
But I don't know, if it is possible to find a 'order by' mechanism for many db-implementations.
Since I had a similar problem, here is a very simple solution:
Make your i column floats, but insert integer values for the initial data:
pk | i | val
------------
1 | 0.0 | hi
0 | 2.0 | hello
2 | 3.0 | goodbye
3 | 4.0 | good day
5 | 6.0 | howdy
Then, if you want to insert something in between, just compute a float value in the middle between the two surrounding values:
pk | i | val
------------
1 | 0.0 | hi
0 | 2.0 | hello
2 | 3.0 | goodbye
3 | 4.0 | good day
5 | 6.0 | howdy
6 | 2.5 | hey
This way the number of inserts between the same two values is limited to the resolution of float values but for almost all cases that should be more than sufficient.
I have data like this:
Task | Hours
1.1 | 40
2 | 40
2.1 | 60
2.1.1 | 15
15.9 | 24
16 | 5
19.1 | 40
19.1.1 | 8
19.1.2 | 12
19.2 | 6
19.2.1 | 21
19.2.2 | 15
19.2.3 | 2
19.3 | 64
I would like to group based on the first two levels of the Task, producing this result:
Task | Hours
1.1 | 40
2 | 40
2.1 | 75
15.9 | 24
16 | 5
19.1 | 60
19.2 | 44
19.3 | 64
I want the 16 to not roll up what's beneath it, but I need all the other levels to roll up. This is SQL Server 2005. I would normally do a split on the decimal, and break it out that way, but I was wondering if there's a better way to do it in SQL.
Is changing the model an option? If your task column is really meant to represent a hierarchy, you should really be representing the hierarchy properly in your relational model.
If the number of levels deep is fixed at three, another option might be to add three columns to represent each of the "parts" of the task column independently.
If that's not an option, I think you can achieve this with a series of CASE statements that parse the string (plus SUM and GROUP BY).
UPDATE:
Ok, this seemed like a fun challenge, so I came up with this:
SELECT
main_task,
SUM(hours)
FROM
(
SELECT
task,
CASE
WHEN
LEN(task) + 1 - CHARINDEX('.', REVERSE(task)) = CHARINDEX ('.', task) THEN task
ELSE LEFT(task, LEN(task) + 1 - CHARINDEX('.', REVERSE(task)) - 1)
END main_task,
hours
FROM
#temp
) sub
GROUP BY
main_task
Another route is to add some computed columns which break the various task levels apart, then group and sum as you wish.
Assuming the structure of the field task is consistent, you could use the following
select left(task,4) as Task,sum(hours) as Hours
from table
group by left(task,4)
Here is a slightly modified version
select LEFT(task,charindex('.',task+'.')+1),SUM(hours)
from test1
group by LEFT(task,charindex('.',task+'.')+1)
I was thinking about this on my drive home, and I wanted to propose this solution:
Create a table that stores the hierarchy, and then do a join grabbing the task's parent.
TaskStructureTable:
task | task_group
1 | 1
1.1 | 1.1
1.1.1 | 1.1
1.1.2 | 1.1
1.1.3 | 1.1
1.2 | 1.2
1.2.1 | 1.2
Then I could do something like this:
SELECT SUM(d.Hours) AS "Hours", t.task_group
FROM Data d
JOIN TaskStructureTable t ON d.Task = t.task
Think this would be faster than doing CHARINDEX? (yes, I can measure and know for sure)