Hallo, I have a question regarding a selection. I'd like to group and merge certain records having the same values in some columns, but only if they are contiguous with regard to some sort order. So for a table create table foo ( id int, user_id int, key varchar, sort int ); and values e.g. insert into foo values ( 1, 1, 'foo', 1), ( 2, 1, 'foo', 2), ( 3, 1, 'bar', 3), ( 4, 1, 'foo', 4), ( 5, 1, 'foo', 5), ( 6, 1, 'foo', 6), ( 7, 1, 'bla', 7), ( 8, 2, 'bar', 1), ( 9, 2, 'foo', 2), (10, 2, 'foo', 3), (11, 2, 'bla', 4); I'd like to merge all consecutive records (ordered by sort, user_id) having the same value in user_id and key and keep the first/last value of sort of the merged records (and probably some more values from the first or last merged record). So the result should be something like user_id, key, sort_first, sort_last 1, 'foo', 1, 2 1, 'bar', 3, 3 1, 'foo', 4, 6 1, 'bla', 7, 7 2, 'bar', 1, 1 2, 'foo', 2, 3 2, 'bla', 4, 4 I was trying to do that using window functions, which works great - except it merges non consecutive occurences (key foo for user_id 1 in my sample) as well. select user_id, key, sort_first, sort_last from ( select user_id, key, first_value(sort) over w as sort_first, last_value(sort) over w as sort_last, lead(key) over w as next_key from foo window w as (partition by user_id, key order by sort range between unbounded preceding and unbounded following) ) as foo where next_key is null order by user_id, sort_first; user_id | key | sort_first | sort_last ---------+-----+------------+----------- 1 | foo | 1 | 6 <-- would like to have two records 1/2 and 4/6 here 1 | bar | 3 | 3 1 | bla | 7 | 7 2 | bar | 1 | 1 2 | foo | 2 | 3 2 | bla | 4 | 4 Introducing another window on user_id only allows me to keep two records for 1/foo but I still cannot determine the intended sort_first/sort_last. select user_id, key, sort_first, sort_last from ( select user_id, key, first_value(sort) over w as sort_first, last_value(sort) over w as sort_last, lead(key) over u as next_key from foo window u as (partition by user_id order by sort), w as (partition by user_id, key order by sort range between unbounded preceding and unbounded following) ) as foo where next_key is null or key != next_key order by user_id, sort_first; user_id | key | sort_first | sort_last ---------+-----+------------+----------- 1 | foo | 1 | 6 1 | foo | 1 | 6 1 | bar | 3 | 3 1 | bla | 7 | 7 2 | bar | 1 | 1 2 | foo | 2 | 3 2 | bla | 4 | 4 So the question is: is this doable with a selection? Can I use window functions for this type of grouping? Are there other options? I do have an alternative plan to select records into a temporary table first, and then do updates merging two consecutive records and repeat that until all groups are completely merged, but I'd still like to know if I miss something regarding selection options. best Morus PS: the alternative plan is something like select id, user_id, key, sort, sort as sort_last, lead(key) over u as next_key, lead(id) over u as next_id, lag(key) over u as prev_key into temp table footmp from foo window u as (partition by user_id order by sort); update footmp set sort = f2.sort, prev_key = f2.prev_key from footmp f2 where footmp.id = f2.next_id and footmp.key = f2.key and f2.key = f2.next_key and ( f2.prev_key is null or f2.prev_key != f2.key ); delete from footmp where id in ( select id from ( select first_value(id) over w as id, count(*) over w as cnt from footmp window w as ( partition by user_id, sort ) ) as foo where cnt > 1 ); (repeat update/delete until no row is affected) select user_id, key, sort as sort_first, sort_last from footmp order by user_id, sort_first; pretty ugly and complicated but at least gives me what I want... -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general