Postgres Query for Beginners - postgresql

Question

Ok, I deleted previous post and will try this again. I am sure I don't know the topic and I'm not sure if this is a loop or if I should use a stored function or how to get what I'm looking for. Here's sample data and expected output;
I have a single table A. Table has following fields; date created, unique person key, type, location.
I need a Postgres query that says for any given month(parameter, based on date created) and given a location(parameter based on location field), provide me fieds below where unique person key may be duplicated + or – 30 days from the date created within the month given for same type but all locations.
Example Data
Date Created | Unique Person | Type | Location
---------------------------------------------------
2/5/2017 | 1 | Admit | Hospital1
2/6/2017 | 2 | Admit | Hospital2
2/15/2017 | 1 | Admit | Hospital2
2/28/2017 | 3 | Admit | Hospital2
3/3/2017 | 2 | Admit | Hospital1
3/15/2017 | 3 | Admit | Hospital3
3/20/2017 | 4 | Admit | Hospital1
4/1/2017 | 1 | Admit | Hospital2
Output for the month of March for Hospital1:
DateCreated| UniquePerson | Type | Location | +-30days | OtherLoc.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
3/3/2017 | 2 | Admit| Hospital1 | 2/6/2017 | Hospital2
Output for the month of March for Hospital2:
None, because no one was seen at Hospital2 in March
Output for the month of March for Hospital3:
DateCreated| UniquePerson | Type | Location | +-30days | otherLoc.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
3/15/2017 | 3 | Admit| Hospital3 | 2/28/2017 | Hospital2

Answer 1

Version 1
I would use a WITH clause. Please, notice that I've added a column id that is a primary key to simplify the query. It's just to prevent the rows to be matched with themselves.
WITH x AS (
SELECT
id,
date_created,
unique_person_id,
type,
location
FROM
a
WHERE
location = 'Hospital1' AND
date_trunc('month', date_created) = date_trunc('month', '2017-03-01'::date)
)
SELECT
x.date_created,
x.unique_person_id,
x.type,
x.location,
a.date_created AS "+-30days",
a.location AS other_location
FROM
x
JOIN a
USING (unique_person_id, type)
WHERE
x.id != a.id AND
abs(x.date_created - a.date_created) <= 30;
Now a little bit of explanations:
First we select, let's say a reference data with a WITH clause. Think of it as a temporary table that we can reference in the main query. In given example it could be a "main visit" in given hospital.
Then we join "main visits" with other visits of the same person and type (JOIN condition) that happen in date difference of 30 days (WHERE condition).
Notice that the WITH query has the limits you want to check (location and date). I use date_trunc function that truncates the date to specified precision (a month in this case).
Version 2
As #Laurenz Albe suggested, there is no special need to use a WITH clause. Right, so here is a second version.
SELECT
x.date_created,
x.unique_person_id,
x.type,
x.location,
a.date_created AS "+-30days",
a.location AS other_location
FROM
a AS x
JOIN a
USING (unique_person_id, type)
WHERE
x.location = 'Hospital1' AND
date_trunc('month', x.date_created) = date_trunc('month', '2017-03-01'::date) AND
x.id != a.id AND
abs(x.date_created - a.date_created) <= 30;
This version is shorter than the first one but, in my opinion, the first is easier to understand. I don't have big enough set of data to test and I wonder which one runs faster (the query planner shows similar values for both).