[PATCH] Add native PIVOT syntax for SQL Server/Oracle compatibility

On Nov 26, 2025, at 6:50 AM, Kirill Reshke <reshkekirill@gmail.com> wrote:

On Tue, 25 Nov 2025 at 13:11, Myles Lewis <myles93@sbcglobal.net <mailto:myles93@sbcglobal.net>> wrote:

I've developed a patch that adds native PIVOT syntax to PostgreSQL,
enabling SQL Server and Oracle-style pivot queries.

Example:
SELECT region
FROM sales
PIVOT (SUM(revenue) FOR quarter IN ('Q1', 'Q2', 'Q3', 'Q4'));

Key features:
- Parser-level transformation to FILTER aggregates
- No executor changes required
- Supports SUM, COUNT, AVG, MIN, MAX
- View creation with pg_get_viewdef() roundtrip
- Comprehensive regression tests (788 lines)

Patch attached.

Myles

Hi!

+
+ if (IsA(lastField, A_Star))
+ {
+ hasStarExpand = true;
+ break;
+ }
+ }
+ }
+
+ if (hasStarExpand)
+ {
+ ereport(ERROR,
+ (errcode(ERRCODE_FEATURE_NOT_SUPPORTED),
+ errmsg("SELECT * is not allowed with PIVOT"),
+ errhint("Specify the columns you want in the SELECT list."),
+ parser_errposition(pstate, pstate->p_pivot_clause->location)));
+ }

You can ereport immediately inside the loop, since this is basically
`exit` syscall with some pg bookeepeing.

+-- =============================================================================
+-- SECTION 7: CTE (Common Table Expression) TESTS
+-- =============================================================================
+
+-- Test 7.1: Simple CTE with PIVOT

You enamurated your test - this is something that is not done anywhere
else in PostgreSQL regression test suite... At least I do not find
anything similar.
To be clear, commenting on your tests is good, but enumeration is useless.

+ /*
+ * Check for SELECT * - this is not allowed with PIVOT because we need
+ * explicit column selection for proper transformation.
+ */

I did not find an explanation, why exactly SELECT * is disallowed with
PIVOT. What exactly will not work if i do SELECT *, but would if i
manually specify all columns?

Commit msg:

Features:
- Native PIVOT clause syntax: PIVOT (aggregate FOR column IN (values))
- Supports SUM, COUNT, AVG, MIN, MAX aggregates
- COUNT(*) special case supported
- String, integer, and date pivot values
- Subquery and JOIN sources
- CTE support (simple and nested)
- View creation with pg_get_viewdef() roundtrip
- Automatic GROUP BY generation from row identifiers
- Comprehensive error handling with source positions

I believe we do not need this info in commit msg at all. If a
committer commits something in PostgreSQL, it should work in all
cases. So, this contribution dont need list of things it works with -
It should work in every case.

Transformation:
- PIVOT transforms to FILTER aggregates at parse time
- No executor changes required
- EXPLAIN shows expanded FILTER aggregates

I don't find that not making changes to executor is a benefit worth
mentioning in commit msg. This is implementation detail

Error cases handled:
- SELECT * with PIVOT (not allowed)
- Duplicate pivot values
- Invalid aggregate functions
- GROUP BY with PIVOT (not allowed)
- Column name conflicts
- Non-existent pivot/value columns

This just recalls changes to pivot.sql, adding no useful explanation.
It would be better to rewrite this part to indicate why exactly, say,
GROUP BY with PIVOT is not allowed (yet?) and if we have any plans on
improving this.

Files modified:
- src/include/parser/kwlist.h: PIVOT keyword
- src/include/nodes/parsenodes.h: PivotClause, RangePivot nodes
- src/include/parser/parse_node.h: p_pivot_clause in ParseState
- src/backend/parser/gram.y: PIVOT grammar rules
- src/backend/parser/parse_clause.c: transformPivotClause()
- src/backend/parser/analyze.c: Phase 2 integration
- src/backend/utils/adt/ruleutils.c: View deparsing
- src/test/regress/sql/pivot.sql: Comprehensive test suite
- src/test/regress/expected/pivot.out: Expected output
- src/test/regress/parallel_schedule: Added pivot test

I believe we do not need this info in commit msg at all.

--
Best regards,
Kirill Reshke

On Nov 26, 2025, at 1:54 PM, Myles Lewis <myles93@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Appreciate the feedback.

I’ve incorporated all points below into a new patch.

Thanks!

Myles

<0001-Add-native-PIVOT-syntax-support-for-SQL-Server-Oracl-1.patch>

On Nov 26, 2025, at 6:50 AM, Kirill Reshke <reshkekirill@gmail.com> wrote:

On Tue, 25 Nov 2025 at 13:11, Myles Lewis <myles93@sbcglobal.net <mailto:myles93@sbcglobal.net>> wrote:

I've developed a patch that adds native PIVOT syntax to PostgreSQL,
enabling SQL Server and Oracle-style pivot queries.

Example:
SELECT region
FROM sales
PIVOT (SUM(revenue) FOR quarter IN ('Q1', 'Q2', 'Q3', 'Q4'));

Key features:
- Parser-level transformation to FILTER aggregates
- No executor changes required
- Supports SUM, COUNT, AVG, MIN, MAX
- View creation with pg_get_viewdef() roundtrip
- Comprehensive regression tests (788 lines)

Patch attached.

Myles

Hi!

+
+ if (IsA(lastField, A_Star))
+ {
+ hasStarExpand = true;
+ break;
+ }
+ }
+ }
+
+ if (hasStarExpand)
+ {
+ ereport(ERROR,
+ (errcode(ERRCODE_FEATURE_NOT_SUPPORTED),
+ errmsg("SELECT * is not allowed with PIVOT"),
+ errhint("Specify the columns you want in the SELECT list."),
+ parser_errposition(pstate, pstate->p_pivot_clause->location)));
+ }

You can ereport immediately inside the loop, since this is basically
`exit` syscall with some pg bookeepeing.

+-- =============================================================================
+-- SECTION 7: CTE (Common Table Expression) TESTS
+-- =============================================================================
+
+-- Test 7.1: Simple CTE with PIVOT

You enamurated your test - this is something that is not done anywhere
else in PostgreSQL regression test suite... At least I do not find
anything similar.
To be clear, commenting on your tests is good, but enumeration is useless.

+ /*
+ * Check for SELECT * - this is not allowed with PIVOT because we need
+ * explicit column selection for proper transformation.
+ */

I did not find an explanation, why exactly SELECT * is disallowed with
PIVOT. What exactly will not work if i do SELECT *, but would if i
manually specify all columns?

Commit msg:

Features:
- Native PIVOT clause syntax: PIVOT (aggregate FOR column IN (values))
- Supports SUM, COUNT, AVG, MIN, MAX aggregates
- COUNT(*) special case supported
- String, integer, and date pivot values
- Subquery and JOIN sources
- CTE support (simple and nested)
- View creation with pg_get_viewdef() roundtrip
- Automatic GROUP BY generation from row identifiers
- Comprehensive error handling with source positions

I believe we do not need this info in commit msg at all. If a
committer commits something in PostgreSQL, it should work in all
cases. So, this contribution dont need list of things it works with -
It should work in every case.

Transformation:
- PIVOT transforms to FILTER aggregates at parse time
- No executor changes required
- EXPLAIN shows expanded FILTER aggregates

I don't find that not making changes to executor is a benefit worth
mentioning in commit msg. This is implementation detail

Error cases handled:
- SELECT * with PIVOT (not allowed)
- Duplicate pivot values
- Invalid aggregate functions
- GROUP BY with PIVOT (not allowed)
- Column name conflicts
- Non-existent pivot/value columns

This just recalls changes to pivot.sql, adding no useful explanation.
It would be better to rewrite this part to indicate why exactly, say,
GROUP BY with PIVOT is not allowed (yet?) and if we have any plans on
improving this.

Files modified:
- src/include/parser/kwlist.h: PIVOT keyword
- src/include/nodes/parsenodes.h: PivotClause, RangePivot nodes
- src/include/parser/parse_node.h: p_pivot_clause in ParseState
- src/backend/parser/gram.y: PIVOT grammar rules
- src/backend/parser/parse_clause.c: transformPivotClause()
- src/backend/parser/analyze.c: Phase 2 integration
- src/backend/utils/adt/ruleutils.c: View deparsing
- src/test/regress/sql/pivot.sql: Comprehensive test suite
- src/test/regress/expected/pivot.out: Expected output
- src/test/regress/parallel_schedule: Added pivot test

I believe we do not need this info in commit msg at all.

--
Best regards,
Kirill Reshke

On Nov 26, 2025, at 6:35 PM, Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz> wrote:

On Tue, Nov 25, 2025 at 09:21:49PM +0100, Peter Eisentraut wrote:

Your patch does not contain any documentation, so it's hard to tell what
this is supposed to do if you don't already know those other products. Can
you supply at least some informal documentation, and maybe some links to
relevant documentation from those other products.

(Added Vik Fearing in CC.)

FWIW, I have very mixed feelings about the addition of clauses that
are not part of the SQL specifications AFAIK (just looked at my copy
of 2023), doing an implementation based on the argument of
compatibility that have been taken by other products here, because we
would have to live with this compatibility issues in the long-term.

Peter, Vik, is there an equivalent under discussion on the
specification side? If something gets released, an implementation may
make sense based on it, but at this stage it would hard to decide why
one direction would be more adapted than another.
--
Michael