PostgreSQL 8.2.23 Documentation | ||||
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Aggregate functions compute a single result value from a set of input values. The built-in aggregate functions are listed inTable 9-37 andTable 9-38. The special syntax considerations for aggregate functions are explained inSection 4.2.7. ConsultSection 2.7 for additional introductory information.
Table 9-37. General-Purpose Aggregate Functions
It should be noted that except forcount
, these functions return a null value when no rows are selected. In particular,sum
of no rows returns null, not zero as one might expect. Thecoalesce
function may be used to substitute zero for null when necessary.
Note: Boolean aggregates
bool_and
andbool_or
correspond to standard SQL aggregatesevery
andany
orsome
. As forany
andsome
, it seems that there is an ambiguity built into the standard syntax:SELECT b1 = ANY((SELECT b2 FROM t2 ...)) FROM t1 ...;Here
ANY
can be considered both as leading to a subquery or as an aggregate if the select expression returns 1 row. Thus the standard name cannot be given to these aggregates.
Note: Users accustomed to working with other SQL database management systems may be surprised by the performance of the
count
aggregate when it is applied to the entire table. A query like:SELECT count(*) FROM sometable;will be executed byPostgreSQL using a sequential scan of the entire table.
Table 9-38 shows aggregate functions typically used in statistical analysis. (These are separated out merely to avoid cluttering the listing of more-commonly-used aggregates.) Where the description mentionsN, it means the number of input rows for which all the input expressions are non-null. In all cases, null is returned if the computation is meaningless, for example whenN is zero.
Table 9-38. Aggregate Functions for Statistics