doc/src/sgml/intagg.sgml

<!-- doc/src/sgml/intagg.sgml -->

<sect1 id="intagg" xreflabel="intagg">
 <title>intagg &mdash; integer aggregator and enumerator</title>

 <indexterm zone="intagg">
  <primary>intagg</primary>
 </indexterm>

 <para>
  The <filename>intagg</filename> module provides an integer aggregator and an
  enumerator.  <filename>intagg</filename> is now obsolete, because there
  are built-in functions that provide a superset of its capabilities.
  However, the module is still provided as a compatibility wrapper around
  the built-in functions.
 </para>

 <sect2 id="intagg-functions">
  <title>Functions</title>

 <indexterm>
  <primary>int_array_aggregate</primary>
 </indexterm>

 <indexterm>
  <primary>array_agg</primary>
 </indexterm>

 <para>
  The aggregator is an aggregate function
  <function>int_array_aggregate(integer)</function>
  that produces an integer array
  containing exactly the integers it is fed.
  This is a wrapper around <function>array_agg</function>,
  which does the same thing for any array type.
 </para>

 <indexterm>
  <primary>int_array_enum</primary>
 </indexterm>

 <para>
  The enumerator is a function
  <function>int_array_enum(integer[])</function>
  that returns <type>setof integer</type>.  It is essentially the reverse
  operation of the aggregator: given an array of integers, expand it
  into a set of rows.  This is a wrapper around <function>unnest</function>,
  which does the same thing for any array type.
 </para>

 </sect2>

 <sect2 id="intagg-samples">
  <title>Sample Uses</title>

  <para>
   Many database systems have the notion of a one to many table. Such a table
   usually sits between two indexed tables, for example:

<programlisting>
CREATE TABLE left (id INT PRIMARY KEY, ...);
CREATE TABLE right (id INT PRIMARY KEY, ...);
CREATE TABLE one_to_many(left INT REFERENCES left, right INT REFERENCES right);
</programlisting>

  It is typically used like this:

<programlisting>
SELECT right.* from right JOIN one_to_many ON (right.id = one_to_many.right)
  WHERE one_to_many.left = <replaceable>item</replaceable>;
</programlisting>

  This will return all the items in the right hand table for an entry
  in the left hand table. This is a very common construct in SQL.
 </para>

 <para>
  Now, this methodology can be cumbersome with a very large number of
  entries in the <structname>one_to_many</structname> table.  Often,
  a join like this would result in an index scan
  and a fetch for each right hand entry in the table for a particular
  left hand entry. If you have a very dynamic system, there is not much you
  can do. However, if you have some data which is fairly static, you can
  create a summary table with the aggregator.

<programlisting>
CREATE TABLE summary AS
  SELECT left, int_array_aggregate(right) AS right
  FROM one_to_many
  GROUP BY left;
</programlisting>

  This will create a table with one row per left item, and an array
  of right items. Now this is pretty useless without some way of using
  the array; that's why there is an array enumerator.  You can do

<programlisting>
SELECT left, int_array_enum(right) FROM summary WHERE left = <replaceable>item</replaceable>;
</programlisting>

  The above query using <function>int_array_enum</function> produces the same results
  as

<programlisting>
SELECT left, right FROM one_to_many WHERE left = <replaceable>item</replaceable>;
</programlisting>

  The difference is that the query against the summary table has to get
  only one row from the table, whereas the direct query against
  <structname>one_to_many</structname> must index scan and fetch a row for each entry.
 </para>

 <para>
  On one system, an <command>EXPLAIN</command> showed a query with a cost of 8488 was
  reduced to a cost of 329.  The original query was a join involving the
  <structname>one_to_many</structname> table, which was replaced by:

<programlisting>
SELECT right, count(right) FROM
  ( SELECT left, int_array_enum(right) AS right
    FROM summary JOIN (SELECT left FROM left_table WHERE left = <replaceable>item</replaceable>) AS lefts
         ON (summary.left = lefts.left)
  ) AS list
  GROUP BY right
  ORDER BY count DESC;
</programlisting>
 </para>

 </sect2>

</sect1>