Re: Help - moving data to new table structure

Thanks - I'll look into this further (I haven't played with functions before)

PS - the new table structure is NOT better than the existing one (it sucks), but I
have to meld my data into the existing table structure of another app (modifying
the new app's table structure is not currently an option)

Jakub Ouhrabka (jouh8664(at)ss1000(dot)ms(dot)mff(dot)cuni(dot)cz) wrote*:
>
>Hi,
>
>I'm not sure if your new design is better than the older but you perhaps
>know what you are doing...
>
>Try to solve it with a plpgsql function:
>
>CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION contact_type(contacts.contact_pk%TYPE) RETURNS
>VARCHAR AS '
>DECLARE
> a_pk ALIAS FOR $1;
> l_contact_type VARCHAR;
> lr_rec RECORD;
>BEGIN
> l_contact_type := '''';
> FOR lr_rec IN SELECT * FROM contact_types WHERE contact_pk = a_pk LOOP
> l_contact_type := l_contact_type || '','' || lr_rec.contact_type;
> END LOOP;
>
> l_contact_type := substr(l_contact_type, 2);
>
> RETURN l_contact_type;
>END;
>' LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';
>
>and then you can do something like this:
>
>CREATE TABLE new_contacts AS SELECT *, contact_type(contact_pk) FROM
>contacts;
>
>Totally untested but you have the idea...
>
>It is also possible to write your own aggregate function to do this but it
>is probably overkill...
>
>HTH, kuba
>
>
>
>
>On Thu, 9 Jan 2003, Brian Johnson wrote:
>
>> I'm working on moving contact data from MS Access to some predefined tables in
>> PostgreSQL (part of another application)
>>
>> I need some help creating one of the append queries
>>
>> The Access tables include a table called "Contact Type" that is linked
>> to "Contacts" (the main table for the contact data) with a one to many type
>> relationship (ie each contact can have many types attached to it)
>>
>> The new table layout in PostgreSQL will allow multiple contact types, but they
are
>> listed as comma separated values in one field. The php code in this app then
>> matches up the comma separated values with corresponding records in the "Contact
>> Type" table
>>
>> How the heck do I make a query to transfer the data to this new format?
>>
>>
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>