Re: ERROR: ExecutePlan: (junk) `ctid' is NULL!

On Tue, Apr 29, 2003 at 06:36:59PM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> "Jim C. Nasby" <jim(at)nasby(dot)net> writes:
> > stats=> UPDATE Tsummary
> > stats-> SET participants = count(distinct credit_id)
> > stats-> , teams = count(distinct team_id)
> > stats-> FROM email_contrib_today ect
> > stats-> WHERE ect.project_id = :ProjectID
> > stats-> ;
> > ERROR: ExecutePlan: (junk) `ctid' is NULL!
>
> We really oughta reject UPDATE commands with aggregates at the top
> level. It's not well-defined, it's illegal per SQL spec, and it tends
> to get the executor all confused ...

The problem is that pgsql doesn't support

UPDATE table
SET (field1, field2, field3) =
(SELECT min(blah), max(blah), count(*) FROM table2)

This makes it a real pain to code this using subselects. UPDATE ... FROM
is real handy to have, but I think there's also plenty of occasions
where the ability to set multiple fields at once would be very useful
too.
--
Jim C. Nasby (aka Decibel!) jim(at)nasby(dot)net
Member: Triangle Fraternity, Sports Car Club of America
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