sub select as a data column

you were close, try the following (untesting). You need the alias on the outer my_table for this to work

select year report_year,
sum(amount),
sum(select amount from my_table where year <= a.year)
from my_table a
group by report_year;

---------- Original Message -----------
From: Phong & Ronni Bounmixay <bounmixay@gmail.com>
To: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Sent: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 13:18:41 -0700
Subject: [GENERAL] sub select as a data column

I am having trouble coming up with words to describe exactly what I need so
searching for a solution is getting frustrating! If this has been answered
twelve hundred times - please forgive me!

I want to do in postgresql what I do in oracle:

select year report_year,
sum(amount),
sum(select amount from my_table where year <= report_year)
from my_table
group by report_year;

I see lots of stuff on subselect in the from clause - but how do you
subselect as a data column?

Thanks for the help - it is SEVERLY appreciated!
Ronni

------- End of Original Message -------

Phong & Ronni Bounmixay <bounmixay@gmail.com> writes:

I want to do in postgresql what I do in oracle:

select year report_year,
sum(amount),
sum(select amount from my_table where year <= report_year)
from my_table
group by report_year;

That doesn't really work in Oracle does it? It violates the SQL spec
in at least three ways. Try something like

select year as report_year,
sum(amount),
sum((select amount from my_table b where b.year <= a.year))
from my_table a
group by year;

(which should work in Oracle too, or any other SQL-spec-compliant
database). Note the extra parentheses ... they're not optional.

regards, tom lane

You both are SO right! I sent that off and tried a couple of things and
realized I was close but not close enough. I really appreciate the kind
responses. Sometimes it's so hard to ask a question without feeling so
foolish and then feeling worse when the answers are sarcastic. Thank you!

Good luck to you both! You do such a good job in this group!
Ronni