Re: Consecutive row count query

You could hack it using a custom aggregate. NB: you'll want to reset the
categorizer_seq every now and then. And this isn't safe for concurrent
queries. You could make it safe for concurrent queries by using a
complex type for STYPE, but I didn't bother. I also haven't debugged
this, but I think it expresses the concept.

CREATE SEQUENCE categorizer_seq;

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION categorizer_func (string, string) RETURNS
bigint VOLATILE CALLED ON NULL INPUT AS '
SELECT CASE WHEN $1 = $2
THEN (SELECT last_value FROM categorizer_seq)
ELSE nextval(''categorizer_seq'')
END AS category
' LANGUAGE SQL;

CREATE AGGREGATE categorizer (
BASETYPE = text,
SFUNC = categorizer_func,
STYPE = text,
INITCOND = ''
);

SELECT col1, count(*)
FROM (
SELECT col1, cagetorizer(col1) AS category
FROM mytable
ORDER BY col_order
) tmp
GROUP BY (col1, category);

Leon Stringer wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I wondered if anyone could answer the following question:
>
> If I have a table such as the one below:
>
> col1 col_order
> -----------
> Apple 1
> Apple 2
> Orange 3
> Banana 4
> Apple 5
>
> Is there a way I can get the following results:
>
> Apple 2
> Orange 1
> Banana 1
> Apple 1
>
> i.e. Each row is printed ordered by col_order but consecutive
> appearances of the same col1 result in only a single line in the result
> with the number of consecutive appearances.
>
> Obviously I could store the table as:
>
> col1 col_order col_count
> --------------------------
> Apple 1 2
> Orange 2 1
> Banana 3 1
> Apple 4 1
>
> But since (in my intended table) most rows will have col_count = 1, this
> seems like unnecessary normalization (and semantically "wrong").
>
> Thanks in advance for any help,
>
> Leon Stringer
>
>
>
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