PostgreSQL left join with alias in a loop - postgresql

Is it possible to iterate over a table's records and make a left join with them in a stored procedure?
Something like this:
FOR r IN SELECT tablename FROM tablewithtablenames ORDER BY tablename ASC
LOOP
INSERT INTO temp_Results
SELECT
temp_ids.Key as Key,
loggedvalue.pk_timestamp,
FROM
(temp_idS AS temp_ids
LEFT JOIN
quote_ident(r.tablename) AS loggedvalue
ON temp_ids.Key = loggedvalue.pk_fk_id);
END LOOP;
Unfortunately i get the following error message when i want to execute the stored procedure. (Function creation was successful.)
Error message:
ERROR: column loggedvalue.pk_fk_id does not exist LINE 29:
ON temp_ids.Key = "loggedvalue...
I have the feeling that i convert the record in a wrong way maybe because when i manually replaced the quote_ident(r.tablename) to the name of the table that i know the r contains it was fine, also i traced out the r.tablename in the loop and it was correct also.

As a_horse_with_no_name pointed out i should have use dynamic sql because in plpgsql you can not use a variable as a table name so i eliminated the loop and i used a union all:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION getaffectedtables(
OUT tableNames TEXT)
as $$
BEGIN
SELECT TRIM(TRAILING ' UNION ALL ' FROM string_agg('','SELECT * FROM "' || "tablename" || '" UNION ALL '))
INTO tableNames
FROM exampleTable;
END;$$
LANGUAGE plpgsql;
Then i used dynamic execute:
DECLARE
affectednames TEXT;
BEGIN
affectednames := getaffectedtables();
EXECUTE '
SELECT
temp_ids.Key as Key,
loggedvalue.pk_timestamp,
FROM
(temp_idS AS temp_ids
LEFT JOIN
('|| affectednames ||') AS loggedvalue
ON temp_ids.Key = loggedvalue.pk_fk_id);';

Related

Getting Results of Dynamic Query As A Table?

My company is going to start generating documents using data from our database and I am designing the function that will spit out the document text. These documents will need to contain data taken from multiple tables, with hundreds of columns and invariably some records will be missing data.
I am trying to make a function that will take null fields and replace them with a little error message that makes it clear to the end user that a piece of data is missing. Since the end user is totally unfamiliar with the backend, I want these messages to reference something intelligible to them.
My solution is pretty simple yet I for the life of me can't get it to work. The record identifier, table name are set as parameters in the function. The function then loops through names for each of the columns in the specified table, building a query that contains a bunch of case statements. Once the loop is complete, the identifier is appended and then the query is executed, returning the results to the calling function.
Despite reading around quite a bit, the best I can is a single column/row containing all the results - not useful to me at all, because I need to be able to easily reference specific pieces of data in the parent query. I am a beginner with Postgres and the documentation is too complex for me to understand, any help would be appreciated.
-- Function: data_handler(text, text)
-- DROP FUNCTION data_handler(text, text);
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION data_handler(target_uri text, target_table TEXT)
RETURNS SETOF record AS
$BODY$
DECLARE
c text;
strSQL text;
site_only text;
result record;
BEGIN
--We need the schema for strSQL but the loop needs just the table name.
site_only = split_part(target_table, '.', 2);
FOR c IN
SELECT column_name
FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE table_name = site_only
LOOP
strSQL = concat(strSQL, chr(10), '(SELECT CASE WHEN ', c::text, '::text IS NULL THEN concat(', chr(39), '<Error:', chr(39), ', (SELECT lkp_value FROM alb_cr.lkp_field_values WHERE column_name = ', chr(39), c::text, chr(39), ')::text, ', chr(39), ' value not found>', chr(39), ')::text ELSE ',
c::text, '::text END AS ', c::text, '_convert) AS ', c::text, ',');
END LOOP;
strSQL = LEFT(strSQL, character_length(strSQL) - 1);
strSQL = concat('SELECT ', strSQL, ' FROM ', target_table, ' WHERE nm_site_id = ', chr(39), target_uri, chr(39));
RETURN QUERY EXECUTE strSQL;
RAISE NOTICE 'strSQL: %', strSQL;
--RETURN strSQL;
--RETURN QUERY EXECUTE format('SELECT ' || strSQL || 'FROM %s WHERE nm_site_id = $1', pg_typeof(target_table)) USING target_uri;
END
$BODY$
LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE
COST 100;
ALTER FUNCTION data_handler(text, text)
OWNER TO inti;
You could create views for that as well, in the following example on a schema nullsbegone:
-- create the schema to hold the views
create schema if not exists nullsbegone;
-- create a function to create the views (any and all that you might need)
create or replace function nullsbegone.f_make_view_of(p_tablename text) returns void as $f$
begin
execute ($$
create or replace view nullsbegone.$$||(select relname from pg_class where oid = $1::regclass)||$$
returns void as
select $$||array_to_string(array(
select case when not attnotnull then 'COALESCE('||quote_ident(attname)||$$::text, (SELECT '<Error:'''||lkp_value||''' value not found>' FROM alb_cr.lkp_field_values
WHERE column_name = $$||quote_literal(attname)||$$)) AS $$
else '' end || quote_ident(attname)
from pg_attribute
where attrelid = $1::regclass and attnum > 0 order by attnum
), E', \n')||$$
from $$||$1);
end;$f$ language plpgsql;
-- create the view based on a given table
select nullsbegone.f_make_view_of('yourschema.yourtable');
-- select from your view as if you were selecting from the actual table
select * from nullsbegone.yourtable
where nm_site_id = 'yoursite';

PL/pgSQL Looping through multiple schema, tables and rows

I have a database with multiple identical schemas. There is a number of tables all named 'tran_...' in each schema. I want to loop through all 'tran_' tables in all schemas and pull out records that fall within a specific date range. This is the code I have so far:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public."configChanges"(starttime timestamp, endtime timestamp)
RETURNS SETOF character varying AS
$BODY$DECLARE
tbl_row RECORD;
tbl_name VARCHAR(50);
tran_row RECORD;
out_record VARCHAR(200);
BEGIN
FOR tbl_row IN
SELECT * FROM pg_tables WHERE schemaname LIKE 'ivr%' AND tablename LIKE 'tran_%'
LOOP
tbl_name := tbl_row.schemaname || '.' || tbl_row.tablename;
FOR tran_row IN
SELECT * FROM tbl_name
WHERE ch_edit_date >= starttime AND ch_edit_date <= endtime
LOOP
out_record := tbl_name || ' ' || tran_row.ch_field_name;
RETURN NEXT out_record;
END LOOP;
END LOOP;
RETURN;
END;
$BODY$
LANGUAGE plpgsql;
When I attempt to run this, I get:
ERROR: relation "tbl_name" does not exist
LINE 1: SELECT * FROM tbl_name WHERE ch_edit_date >= starttime AND c...
#Pavel already provided a fix for your basic error.
However, since your tbl_name is actually schema-qualified (two separate identifiers in : schema.table), it cannot be escaped as a whole with %I in format(). You have to escape each identifier individually.
Aside from that, I suggest a different approach. The outer loop is necessary, but the inner loop can be replaced with a simpler and more efficient set-based approach:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.config_changes(_start timestamp, _end timestamp)
RETURNS SETOF text AS
$func$
DECLARE
_tbl text;
BEGIN
FOR _tbl IN
SELECT quote_ident(schemaname) || '.' || quote_ident(tablename)
FROM pg_tables
WHERE schemaname LIKE 'ivr%'
AND tablename LIKE 'tran_%'
LOOP
RETURN QUERY EXECUTE format (
$$
SELECT %1$L || ' ' || ch_field_name
FROM %1$s
WHERE ch_edit_date BETWEEN $1 AND $2
$$, _tbl
)
USING _start, _end;
END LOOP;
RETURN;
END
$func$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
You have to use dynamic SQL to parametrize identifiers (or code), like #Pavel already told you. With RETURN QUERY EXECUTE you can return the result of a dynamic query directly. Examples:
Return SETOF rows from PostgreSQL function
Refactor a PL/pgSQL function to return the output of various SELECT queries
Remember that identifiers have to be treated as unsafe user input in dynamic SQL and must always be sanitized to avoid syntax errors and SQL injection:
Table name as a PostgreSQL function parameter
Note how I escape table and schema separately:
quote_ident(schemaname) || '.' || quote_ident(tablename)
Consequently I just use %s to insert the already escaped table name in the later query. And %L to escape it a string literal for output.
I like to prepend parameter and variable names with _ to avoid naming conflicts with column names. No other special meaning.
There is a slight difference compared to your original function. This one returns an escaped identifier (double-quoted only where necessary) as table name, e.g.:
"WeIRD name"
instead of
WeIRD name
Much simpler yet
If possible, use inheritance to obviate the need for above function altogether. Complete example:
Select (retrieve) all records from multiple schemas using Postgres
You cannot use a plpgsql variable as SQL table name or SQL column name. In this case you have to use dynamic SQL:
FOR tran_row IN
EXECUTE format('SELECT * FROM %I
WHERE ch_edit_date >= starttime AND ch_edit_date <= endtime', tbl_name)
LOOP
out_record := tbl_name || ' ' || tran_row.ch_field_name;
RETURN NEXT out_record;
END LOOP;

Loop on tables with PL/pgSQL in Postgres 9.0+

I want to loop through all my tables to count rows in each of them. The following query gets me an error:
DO $$
DECLARE
tables CURSOR FOR
SELECT tablename FROM pg_tables
WHERE tablename NOT LIKE 'pg_%'
ORDER BY tablename;
tablename varchar(100);
nbRow int;
BEGIN
FOR tablename IN tables LOOP
EXECUTE 'SELECT count(*) FROM ' || tablename INTO nbRow;
-- Do something with nbRow
END LOOP;
END$$;
Errors:
ERROR: syntax error at or near ")"
LINE 1: SELECT count(*) FROM (sql_features)
^
QUERY: SELECT count(*) FROM (sql_features)
CONTEXT: PL/pgSQL function inline_code_block line 8 at EXECUTE statement
sql_features is a table's name in my DB. I already tried to use quote_ident() but to no avail.
I can't remember the last time I actually needed to use an explicit cursor for looping in PL/pgSQL.
Use the implicit cursor of a FOR loop, that's much cleaner:
DO
$$
DECLARE
rec record;
nbrow bigint;
BEGIN
FOR rec IN
SELECT *
FROM pg_tables
WHERE tablename NOT LIKE 'pg\_%'
ORDER BY tablename
LOOP
EXECUTE 'SELECT count(*) FROM '
|| quote_ident(rec.schemaname) || '.'
|| quote_ident(rec.tablename)
INTO nbrow;
-- Do something with nbrow
END LOOP;
END
$$;
You need to include the schema name to make this work for all schemas (including those not in your search_path).
Also, you actually need to use quote_ident() or format() with %I or a regclass variable to safeguard against SQL injection. A table name can be almost anything inside double quotes. See:
Table name as a PostgreSQL function parameter
Minor detail: escape the underscore (_) in the LIKE pattern to make it a literal underscore: tablename NOT LIKE 'pg\_%'
How I might do it:
DO
$$
DECLARE
tbl regclass;
nbrow bigint;
BEGIN
FOR tbl IN
SELECT c.oid
FROM pg_class c
JOIN pg_namespace n ON n.oid = c.relnamespace
WHERE c.relkind = 'r'
AND n.nspname NOT LIKE 'pg\_%' -- system schema(s)
AND n.nspname <> 'information_schema' -- information schema
ORDER BY n.nspname, c.relname
LOOP
EXECUTE 'SELECT count(*) FROM ' || tbl INTO nbrow;
-- raise notice '%: % rows', tbl, nbrow;
END LOOP;
END
$$;
Query pg_catalog.pg_class instead of tablename, it provides the OID of the table.
The object identifier type regclass is handy to simplify. n particular, table names are double-quoted and schema-qualified where necessary automatically (also prevents SQL injection).
This query also excludes temporary tables (temp schema is named pg_temp% internally).
To only include tables from a given schema:
AND n.nspname = 'public' -- schema name here, case-sensitive
The cursor returns a record, not a scalar value, so "tablename" is not a string variable.
The concatenation turns the record into a string that looks like this (sql_features). If you had selected e.g. the schemaname with the tablename, the text representation of the record would have been (public,sql_features).
So you need to access the column inside the record to create your SQL statement:
DO $$
DECLARE
tables CURSOR FOR
SELECT tablename
FROM pg_tables
WHERE tablename NOT LIKE 'pg_%'
ORDER BY tablename;
nbRow int;
BEGIN
FOR table_record IN tables LOOP
EXECUTE 'SELECT count(*) FROM ' || table_record.tablename INTO nbRow;
-- Do something with nbRow
END LOOP;
END$$;
You might want to use WHERE schemaname = 'public' instead of not like 'pg_%' to exclude the Postgres system tables.

How to add column if not exists on PostgreSQL?

Question is simple. How to add column x to table y, but only when x column doesn't exist ? I found only solution here how to check if column exists.
SELECT column_name
FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE table_name='x' and column_name='y';
With Postgres 9.6 this can be done using the option if not exists
ALTER TABLE table_name ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS column_name INTEGER;
Here's a short-and-sweet version using the "DO" statement:
DO $$
BEGIN
BEGIN
ALTER TABLE <table_name> ADD COLUMN <column_name> <column_type>;
EXCEPTION
WHEN duplicate_column THEN RAISE NOTICE 'column <column_name> already exists in <table_name>.';
END;
END;
$$
You can't pass these as parameters, you'll need to do variable substitution in the string on the client side, but this is a self contained query that only emits a message if the column already exists, adds if it doesn't and will continue to fail on other errors (like an invalid data type).
I don't recommend doing ANY of these methods if these are random strings coming from external sources. No matter what method you use (client-side or server-side dynamic strings executed as queries), it would be a recipe for disaster as it opens you to SQL injection attacks.
Postgres 9.6 added ALTER TABLE tbl ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS column_name.
So this is mostly outdated now. You might use it in older versions, or a variation to check for more than just the column name.
CREATE OR REPLACE function f_add_col(_tbl regclass, _col text, _type regtype)
RETURNS bool
LANGUAGE plpgsql AS
$func$
BEGIN
IF EXISTS (SELECT FROM pg_attribute
WHERE attrelid = _tbl
AND attname = _col
AND NOT attisdropped) THEN
RETURN false;
ELSE
EXECUTE format('ALTER TABLE %s ADD COLUMN %I %s', _tbl, _col, _type);
RETURN true;
END IF;
END
$func$;
Call:
SELECT f_add_col('public.kat', 'pfad1', 'int');
Returns true on success, else false (column already exists).
Raises an exception for invalid table or type name.
Why another version?
This could be done with a DO statement, but DO statements cannot return anything. And if it's for repeated use, I would create a function.
I use the object identifier types regclass and regtype for _tbl and _type which a) prevents SQL injection and b) checks validity of both immediately (cheapest possible way). The column name _col has still to be sanitized for EXECUTE with quote_ident(). See:
Table name as a PostgreSQL function parameter
format() requires Postgres 9.1+. For older versions concatenate manually:
EXECUTE 'ALTER TABLE ' || _tbl || ' ADD COLUMN ' || quote_ident(_col) || ' ' || _type;
You can schema-qualify your table name, but you don't have to.
You can double-quote the identifiers in the function call to preserve camel-case and reserved words (but you shouldn't use any of this anyway).
I query pg_catalog instead of the information_schema. Detailed explanation:
How to check if a table exists in a given schema
Blocks containing an EXCEPTION clause are substantially slower.
This is simpler and faster. The manual:
Tip
A block containing an EXCEPTION clause is significantly more
expensive to enter and exit than a block without one.
Therefore, don't use EXCEPTION without need.
Following select query will return true/false, using EXISTS() function.
EXISTS(): The argument of EXISTS is an arbitrary SELECT statement, or
subquery. The subquery is evaluated to determine whether it returns
any rows. If it returns at least one row, the result of EXISTS is
"true"; if the subquery returns no rows, the result of EXISTS is
"false"
SELECT EXISTS(SELECT column_name
FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE table_schema = 'public'
AND table_name = 'x'
AND column_name = 'y');
and use the following dynamic SQL statement to alter your table
DO
$$
BEGIN
IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT column_name
FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE table_schema = 'public'
AND table_name = 'x'
AND column_name = 'y') THEN
ALTER TABLE x ADD COLUMN y int DEFAULT NULL;
ELSE
RAISE NOTICE 'Already exists';
END IF;
END
$$
For those who use Postgre 9.5+(I believe most of you do), there is a quite simple and clean solution
ALTER TABLE if exists <tablename> add if not exists <columnname> <columntype>
the below function will check the column if exist return appropriate message else it will add the column to the table.
create or replace function addcol(schemaname varchar, tablename varchar, colname varchar, coltype varchar)
returns varchar
language 'plpgsql'
as
$$
declare
col_name varchar ;
begin
execute 'select column_name from information_schema.columns where table_schema = ' ||
quote_literal(schemaname)||' and table_name='|| quote_literal(tablename) || ' and column_name= '|| quote_literal(colname)
into col_name ;
raise info ' the val : % ', col_name;
if(col_name is null ) then
col_name := colname;
execute 'alter table ' ||schemaname|| '.'|| tablename || ' add column '|| colname || ' ' || coltype;
else
col_name := colname ||' Already exist';
end if;
return col_name;
end;
$$
This is basically the solution from sola, but just cleaned up a bit. It's different enough that I didn't just want to "improve" his solution (plus, I sort of think that's rude).
Main difference is that it uses the EXECUTE format. Which I think is a bit cleaner, but I believe means that you must be on PostgresSQL 9.1 or newer.
This has been tested on 9.1 and works. Note: It will raise an error if the schema/table_name/or data_type are invalid. That could "fixed", but might be the correct behavior in many cases.
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION add_column(schema_name TEXT, table_name TEXT,
column_name TEXT, data_type TEXT)
RETURNS BOOLEAN
AS
$BODY$
DECLARE
_tmp text;
BEGIN
EXECUTE format('SELECT COLUMN_NAME FROM information_schema.columns WHERE
table_schema=%L
AND table_name=%L
AND column_name=%L', schema_name, table_name, column_name)
INTO _tmp;
IF _tmp IS NOT NULL THEN
RAISE NOTICE 'Column % already exists in %.%', column_name, schema_name, table_name;
RETURN FALSE;
END IF;
EXECUTE format('ALTER TABLE %I.%I ADD COLUMN %I %s;', schema_name, table_name, column_name, data_type);
RAISE NOTICE 'Column % added to %.%', column_name, schema_name, table_name;
RETURN TRUE;
END;
$BODY$
LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';
usage:
select add_column('public', 'foo', 'bar', 'varchar(30)');
Can be added to migration scripts invoke function and drop when done.
create or replace function patch_column() returns void as
$$
begin
if exists (
select * from information_schema.columns
where table_name='my_table'
and column_name='missing_col'
)
then
raise notice 'missing_col already exists';
else
alter table my_table
add column missing_col varchar;
end if;
end;
$$ language plpgsql;
select patch_column();
drop function if exists patch_column();
In my case, for how it was created reason it is a bit difficult for our migration scripts to cut across different schemas.
To work around this we used an exception that just caught and ignored the error. This also had the nice side effect of being a lot easier to look at.
However, be wary that the other solutions have their own advantages that probably outweigh this solution:
DO $$
BEGIN
BEGIN
ALTER TABLE IF EXISTS bobby_tables RENAME COLUMN "dckx" TO "xkcd";
EXCEPTION
WHEN undefined_column THEN RAISE NOTICE 'Column was already renamed';
END;
END $$;
You can do it by following way.
ALTER TABLE tableName drop column if exists columnName;
ALTER TABLE tableName ADD COLUMN columnName character varying(8);
So it will drop the column if it is already exists. And then add the column to particular table.
Simply check if the query returned a column_name.
If not, execute something like this:
ALTER TABLE x ADD COLUMN y int;
Where you put something useful for 'x' and 'y' and of course a suitable datatype where I used int.

EXECUTE...USING statement in PL/pgSQL doesn't work with record type?

I'm trying to write a function in PL/PgSQL that have to work with a table it receives as a parameter.
I use EXECUTE..INTO..USING statements within the function definition to build dynamic queries (it's the only way I know to do this) but ... I encountered a problem with RECORD data types.
Let's consider the follow (extremely simplified) example.
-- A table with some values.
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS table1;
CREATE TABLE table1 (
code INT,
descr TEXT
);
INSERT INTO table1 VALUES ('1','a');
INSERT INTO table1 VALUES ('2','b');
-- The function code.
DROP FUNCTION IF EXISTS foo (TEXT);
CREATE FUNCTION foo (tbl_name TEXT) RETURNS VOID AS $$
DECLARE
r RECORD;
d TEXT;
BEGIN
FOR r IN
EXECUTE 'SELECT * FROM ' || tbl_name
LOOP
--SELECT r.descr INTO d; --IT WORK
EXECUTE 'SELECT ($1)' || '.descr' INTO d USING r; --IT DOES NOT WORK
RAISE NOTICE '%', d;
END LOOP;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql STRICT;
-- Call foo function on table1
SELECT foo('table1');
It output the following error:
ERROR: could not identify column "descr" in record data type
although the syntax I used seems valid to me. I can't use the static select (commented in the example) because I want to dinamically refer the columns names.
So..someone know what's wrong with the above code?
It's true. You cannot to use type record outside PL/pgSQL space.
RECORD value is valid only in plpgsql.
you can do
EXECUTE 'SELECT $1.descr' INTO d USING r::text::xx;
$1 should be inside the || ,like || $1 || and give spaces properly then it will work.
BEGIN
EXECUTE ' delete from ' || quote_ident($1) || ' where condition ';
END;