Create a PostgreSQL function that becomes a formula field of a table retrieving related data from other table - postgresql

Question

The example above can be done on a SQL Server. It is a function that performs the calculation on another table while getting the current table field Id to list data from other table, return a single value.
Question: how to do the exact thing with PostgreSQL
SELECT TOP(5) * FROM Artists;
+------------+------------------+--------------+-------------+
| ArtistId | ArtistName | ActiveFrom | CountryId |
|------------+------------------+--------------+-------------|
| 1 | Iron Maiden | 1975-12-25 | 3 |
| 2 | AC/DC | 1973-01-11 | 2 |
| 3 | Allan Holdsworth | 1969-01-01 | 3 |
| 4 | Buddy Rich | 1919-01-01 | 6 |
| 5 | Devin Townsend | 1993-01-01 | 8 |
+------------+------------------+--------------+-------------+
SELECT TOP(5) * FROM Albums;
+-----------+------------------------+---------------+------------+-----------+
| AlbumId | AlbumName | ReleaseDate | ArtistId | GenreId |
|-----------+------------------------+---------------+------------+-----------|
| 1 | Powerslave | 1984-09-03 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Powerage | 1978-05-05 | 2 | 1 |
| 3 | Singing Down the Lane | 1956-01-01 | 6 | 3 |
| 4 | Ziltoid the Omniscient | 2007-05-21 | 5 | 1 |
| 5 | Casualties of Cool | 2014-05-14 | 5 | 1 |
+-----------+------------------------+---------------+------------+-----------+
The function
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[ufn_AlbumCount] (#ArtistId int)
RETURNS smallint
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #AlbumCount int;
SELECT #AlbumCount = COUNT(AlbumId)
FROM Albums
WHERE ArtistId = #ArtistId;
RETURN #AlbumCount;
END;
GO
Now, (at SQL Server), after update the first table fields with ALTER TABLE Artists ADD AlbumCount AS dbo.ufn_AlbumCount(ArtistId); whe can list and get the following result.
+------------+------------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+
| ArtistId | ArtistName | ActiveFrom | CountryId | AlbumCount |
|------------+------------------+--------------+-------------+--------------|
| 1 | Iron Maiden | 1975-12-25 | 3 | 5 |
| 2 | AC/DC | 1973-01-11 | 2 | 3 |
| 3 | Allan Holdsworth | 1969-01-01 | 3 | 2 |
| 4 | Buddy Rich | 1919-01-01 | 6 | 1 |
| 5 | Devin Townsend | 1993-01-01 | 8 | 3 |
| 6 | Jim Reeves | 1948-01-01 | 6 | 1 |
| 7 | Tom Jones | 1963-01-01 | 4 | 3 |
| 8 | Maroon 5 | 1994-01-01 | 6 | 0 |
| 9 | The Script | 2001-01-01 | 5 | 1 |
| 10 | Lit | 1988-06-26 | 6 | 0 |
+------------+------------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+
but how to achieve this on postgresql?

Answer 1

Postgres doesn't support "virtual" computed column (i.e. computed columns that are generated at runtime), so there is no exact equivalent. The most efficient solution is a view that counts this:
create view artists_with_counts
as
select a.*,
coalesce(t.album_count, 0) as album_count
from artists a
left join (
select artist_id, count(*) as album_count
from albums
group by artist_id
) t on a.artist_id = t.artist_id;
Another option is to create a function that can be used as a "virtual column" in a select - but as this is done row-by-row, this will be substantially slower than the view.
create function album_count(p_artist artists)
returns bigint
as
$$
select count(*)
from albums a
where a.artist_id = p_artist.artist_id;
$$
language sql
stable;
Then you can include this as a column:
select a.*, a.album_count
from artists a;
Using the function like that, requires to prefix the function reference with the table alias (alternatively, you can use album_count(a))
Online example