postgresql complex query joing same table - postgresql

Question

I would like to get those customers from a table 'transactions' which haven't created any transactions in the last 6 Months.
Table:
'transactions'
id, email, state, paid_at
To visualise:
|------------------------ time period with all transactions --------------------|
|-- period before month transactions > 0) ---|---- curr month transactions = 0 -|
I guess this is doable with a join showing only those that didn't have any transactions on the right side.
Example:
Month = November
The conditions for the left side should be:
COUNT(l.id) > 0
l.paid_at < '2013-05-01 00:00:00'
Conditions for the right side:
COUNT(r.id) = 0
r.paid_at BETWEEN '2013-05-01 00:00:00' AND '2013-11-30 23:59:59'
Is join the right approach?
Answer
SELECT
C .email
FROM
transactions C
WHERE
(
C .email NOT IN (
SELECT DISTINCT
email
FROM
transactions
WHERE
paid_at >= '2013-05-01 00:00:00'
AND paid_at <= '2013-11-30 23:59:59'
)
AND
C .email IN (
SELECT DISTINCT
email
FROM
transactions
WHERE
paid_at <= '2013-05-01 00:00:00'
)
)
AND c.paid_at <= '2013-11-30 23:59:59'

Answer 1

There are a couple of ways you could do this. Use a subquery to get distinct customer ids for transactions in the last 6 months, and then select customers where their id isn't in the subquery.
select c.id, c.name
from customer c
where c.id not in (select distinct customer_id from transaction where dt between <start> and <end>);
Or, use a left join from customer to transaction, and filter the results to have transaction id null. A left join includes all rows from the left-hand table, even when there are no matching rows in the right-hand table. Explanation of left joins here: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/10/a-visual-explanation-of-sql-joins.html
select c.id, c.name
from customer c
left join transaction t on c.id = t.customer_id
and t.dt between <start> and <end>
where t.id is null;
The left join approach is likely to be faster.