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><H1
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><A
NAME="QUERIES-WITH"
>7.8. <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>WITH</TT
> Queries (Common Table Expressions)</A
></H1
><A
NAME="AEN4024"
></A
><A
NAME="AEN4027"
></A
><P
> <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>WITH</TT
> provides a way to write subqueries for use in a larger
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>SELECT</TT
> query. The subqueries, which are often referred to as Common Table
Expressions or <ACRONYM
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>CTE</ACRONYM
>s, can be thought of as defining
temporary tables that exist just for this query. One use of this feature
is to break down complicated queries into simpler parts. An example is:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>WITH regional_sales AS (
SELECT region, SUM(amount) AS total_sales
FROM orders
GROUP BY region
), top_regions AS (
SELECT region
FROM regional_sales
WHERE total_sales > (SELECT SUM(total_sales)/10 FROM regional_sales)
)
SELECT region,
product,
SUM(quantity) AS product_units,
SUM(amount) AS product_sales
FROM orders
WHERE region IN (SELECT region FROM top_regions)
GROUP BY region, product;</PRE
><P>
which displays per-product sales totals in only the top sales regions.
This example could have been written without <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>WITH</TT
>,
but we'd have needed two levels of nested sub-SELECTs. It's a bit
easier to follow this way.
</P
><P
> The optional <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>RECURSIVE</TT
> modifier changes <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>WITH</TT
>
from a mere syntactic convenience into a feature that accomplishes
things not otherwise possible in standard SQL. Using
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>RECURSIVE</TT
>, a <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>WITH</TT
> query can refer to its own
output. A very simple example is this query to sum the integers from 1
through 100:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>WITH RECURSIVE t(n) AS (
VALUES (1)
UNION ALL
SELECT n+1 FROM t WHERE n < 100
)
SELECT sum(n) FROM t;</PRE
><P>
The general form of a recursive <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>WITH</TT
> query is always a
<I
CLASS="FIRSTTERM"
>non-recursive term</I
>, then <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>UNION</TT
> (or
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>UNION ALL</TT
>), then a
<I
CLASS="FIRSTTERM"
>recursive term</I
>, where only the recursive term can contain
a reference to the query's own output. Such a query is executed as
follows:
</P
><DIV
CLASS="PROCEDURE"
><P
><B
>Recursive Query Evaluation</B
></P
><OL
TYPE="1"
><LI
CLASS="STEP"
><P
> Evaluate the non-recursive term. For <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>UNION</TT
> (but not
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>UNION ALL</TT
>), discard duplicate rows. Include all remaining
rows in the result of the recursive query, and also place them in a
temporary <I
CLASS="FIRSTTERM"
>working table</I
>.
</P
></LI
><LI
CLASS="STEP"
><P
> So long as the working table is not empty, repeat these steps:
</P
><OL
CLASS="SUBSTEPS"
TYPE="a"
><LI
CLASS="STEP"
><P
> Evaluate the recursive term, substituting the current contents of
the working table for the recursive self-reference.
For <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>UNION</TT
> (but not <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>UNION ALL</TT
>), discard
duplicate rows and rows that duplicate any previous result row.
Include all remaining rows in the result of the recursive query, and
also place them in a temporary <I
CLASS="FIRSTTERM"
>intermediate table</I
>.
</P
></LI
><LI
CLASS="STEP"
><P
> Replace the contents of the working table with the contents of the
intermediate table, then empty the intermediate table.
</P
></LI
></OL
></LI
></OL
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="NOTE"
><BLOCKQUOTE
CLASS="NOTE"
><P
><B
>Note: </B
> Strictly speaking, this process is iteration not recursion, but
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>RECURSIVE</TT
> is the terminology chosen by the SQL standards
committee.
</P
></BLOCKQUOTE
></DIV
><P
> In the example above, the working table has just a single row in each step,
and it takes on the values from 1 through 100 in successive steps. In
the 100th step, there is no output because of the <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>WHERE</TT
>
clause, and so the query terminates.
</P
><P
> Recursive queries are typically used to deal with hierarchical or
tree-structured data. A useful example is this query to find all the
direct and indirect sub-parts of a product, given only a table that
shows immediate inclusions:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>WITH RECURSIVE included_parts(sub_part, part, quantity) AS (
SELECT sub_part, part, quantity FROM parts WHERE part = 'our_product'
UNION ALL
SELECT p.sub_part, p.part, p.quantity
FROM included_parts pr, parts p
WHERE p.part = pr.sub_part
)
SELECT sub_part, SUM(quantity) as total_quantity
FROM included_parts
GROUP BY sub_part</PRE
><P>
</P
><P
> When working with recursive queries it is important to be sure that
the recursive part of the query will eventually return no tuples,
or else the query will loop indefinitely. Sometimes, using
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>UNION</TT
> instead of <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>UNION ALL</TT
> can accomplish this
by discarding rows that duplicate previous output rows. However, often a
cycle does not involve output rows that are completely duplicate: it may be
necessary to check just one or a few fields to see if the same point has
been reached before. The standard method for handling such situations is
to compute an array of the already-visited values. For example, consider
the following query that searches a table <TT
CLASS="STRUCTNAME"
>graph</TT
> using a
<TT
CLASS="STRUCTFIELD"
>link</TT
> field:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>WITH RECURSIVE search_graph(id, link, data, depth) AS (
SELECT g.id, g.link, g.data, 1
FROM graph g
UNION ALL
SELECT g.id, g.link, g.data, sg.depth + 1
FROM graph g, search_graph sg
WHERE g.id = sg.link
)
SELECT * FROM search_graph;</PRE
><P>
This query will loop if the <TT
CLASS="STRUCTFIELD"
>link</TT
> relationships contain
cycles. Because we require a <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"depth"</SPAN
> output, just changing
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>UNION ALL</TT
> to <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>UNION</TT
> would not eliminate the looping.
Instead we need to recognize whether we have reached the same row again
while following a particular path of links. We add two columns
<TT
CLASS="STRUCTFIELD"
>path</TT
> and <TT
CLASS="STRUCTFIELD"
>cycle</TT
> to the loop-prone query:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>WITH RECURSIVE search_graph(id, link, data, depth, path, cycle) AS (
SELECT g.id, g.link, g.data, 1,
ARRAY[g.id],
false
FROM graph g
UNION ALL
SELECT g.id, g.link, g.data, sg.depth + 1,
path || g.id,
g.id = ANY(path)
FROM graph g, search_graph sg
WHERE g.id = sg.link AND NOT cycle
)
SELECT * FROM search_graph;</PRE
><P>
Aside from preventing cycles, the array value is often useful in its own
right as representing the <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"path"</SPAN
> taken to reach any particular row.
</P
><P
> In the general case where more than one field needs to be checked to
recognize a cycle, use an array of rows. For example, if we needed to
compare fields <TT
CLASS="STRUCTFIELD"
>f1</TT
> and <TT
CLASS="STRUCTFIELD"
>f2</TT
>:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>WITH RECURSIVE search_graph(id, link, data, depth, path, cycle) AS (
SELECT g.id, g.link, g.data, 1,
ARRAY[ROW(g.f1, g.f2)],
false
FROM graph g
UNION ALL
SELECT g.id, g.link, g.data, sg.depth + 1,
path || ROW(g.f1, g.f2),
ROW(g.f1, g.f2) = ANY(path)
FROM graph g, search_graph sg
WHERE g.id = sg.link AND NOT cycle
)
SELECT * FROM search_graph;</PRE
><P>
</P
><DIV
CLASS="TIP"
><BLOCKQUOTE
CLASS="TIP"
><P
><B
>Tip: </B
> Omit the <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>ROW()</TT
> syntax in the common case where only one field
needs to be checked to recognize a cycle. This allows a simple array
rather than a composite-type array to be used, gaining efficiency.
</P
></BLOCKQUOTE
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="TIP"
><BLOCKQUOTE
CLASS="TIP"
><P
><B
>Tip: </B
> The recursive query evaluation algorithm produces its output in
breadth-first search order. You can display the results in depth-first
search order by making the outer query <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>ORDER BY</TT
> a
<SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"path"</SPAN
> column constructed in this way.
</P
></BLOCKQUOTE
></DIV
><P
> A helpful trick for testing queries
when you are not certain if they might loop is to place a <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>LIMIT</TT
>
in the parent query. For example, this query would loop forever without
the <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>LIMIT</TT
>:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>WITH RECURSIVE t(n) AS (
SELECT 1
UNION ALL
SELECT n+1 FROM t
)
SELECT n FROM t LIMIT 100;</PRE
><P>
This works because <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>PostgreSQL</SPAN
>'s implementation
evaluates only as many rows of a <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>WITH</TT
> query as are actually
fetched by the parent query. Using this trick in production is not
recommended, because other systems might work differently. Also, it
usually won't work if you make the outer query sort the recursive query's
results or join them to some other table.
</P
><P
> A useful property of <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>WITH</TT
> queries is that they are evaluated
only once per execution of the parent query, even if they are referred to
more than once by the parent query or sibling <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>WITH</TT
> queries.
Thus, expensive calculations that are needed in multiple places can be
placed within a <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>WITH</TT
> query to avoid redundant work. Another
possible application is to prevent unwanted multiple evaluations of
functions with side-effects.
However, the other side of this coin is that the optimizer is less able to
push restrictions from the parent query down into a <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>WITH</TT
> query
than an ordinary sub-query. The <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>WITH</TT
> query will generally be
evaluated as stated, without suppression of rows that the parent query
might discard afterwards. (But, as mentioned above, evaluation might stop
early if the reference(s) to the query demand only a limited number of
rows.)
</P
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