Working with CTEs in Postgres
02.01.2022
Intro
A Common Table Expression or CTE is a temporary table result that exists within a single query. The provide better performance and readability compared to derived tables and can self reference. In this article, we will learn how to use Common Table Expressions in PostgreSQL.
The Syntax
The basic syntax of CTE is as follows:
WITH [cte_name] as (
SELECT
[columns]
FROM
[table]
WHERE
EXISTS ([subquery])
)
SELECT * FROM [cte_name];This syntax is only slightly different than a derived table, but comes with performance benefits.
Getting Setup
We will be using docker in this article, but feel free to install your database locally instead. Once you have docker installed, create a new file called docker-compose.yml and add the following.
version: '3'
services:
db:
image: 'postgres:latest'
ports:
- 5432:5432
environment:
POSTGRES_USER: username
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: password
POSTGRES_DB: default_database
volumes:
- psqldata:/var/lib/postgresql
phpmyadmin:
image: phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin
links:
- db
environment:
PMA_HOST: db
PMA_PORT: 3306
PMA_ARBITRARY: 1
restart: always
ports:
- 8081:80
volumes:
psqldata:Next, run docker-compose up.
Now, navigate to http://localhost:8081/ to access phpMyAdmin. Then log in with the username root and pass root_pass.
Click the SQL tab and you are ready to go.
Creating a DB
In this article, we will need some data to work with. If you don't understand these commands, don't worry, we will cover them in later articles.
We will be using the sample db provided here: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/sakila/en/. However, we will only enter what we need rather than import the whole db.
Next, let's create an film table. This is a slightly simplified version of the sakila database.
CREATE TABLE employees (
emp_no INT NOT NULL,
birth_date DATE NOT NULL,
first_name VARCHAR(14) NOT NULL,
last_name VARCHAR(16) NOT NULL,
gender VARCHAR(1),
hire_date DATE NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (emp_no)
);CREATE TABLE salaries (
emp_no INT NOT NULL,
salary INT NOT NULL,
from_date DATE NOT NULL,
to_date DATE NOT NULL,
FOREIGN KEY (emp_no) REFERENCES employees (emp_no) ON DELETE CASCADE,
PRIMARY KEY (emp_no, from_date)
);Now, let's enter a few rows
INSERT INTO employees VALUES (10001,'1953-09-02','Georgi','Facello','M','1986-06-26'),
(10002,'1964-06-02','Bezalel','Simmel','F','1985-11-21'),
(10003,'1959-12-03','Parto','Bamford','M','1986-08-28'),
(10004,'1954-05-01','Chirstian','Koblick','M','1986-12-01'),
(10005,'1955-01-21','Kyoichi','Maliniak','M','1989-09-12'),
(10006,'1953-04-20','Anneke','Preusig','F','1989-06-02'),
(10007,'1957-05-23','Tzvetan','Zielinski','F','1989-02-10'),
(10008,'1958-02-19','Saniya','Kalloufi','M','1994-09-15'),
(10009,'1952-04-19','Sumant','Peac','F','1985-02-18'),
(10010,'1963-06-01','Duangkaew','Piveteau','F','1989-08-24'),
(10011,'1953-11-07','Mary','Sluis','F','1990-01-22'),
(10012,'1960-10-04','Patricio','Bridgland','M','1992-12-18'),
(10013,'1963-06-07','Eberhardt','Terkki','M','1985-10-20'),
(10014,'1956-02-12','Berni','Genin','M','1987-03-11'),
(10015,'1959-08-19','Guoxiang','Nooteboom','M','1987-07-02'),
(10016,'1961-05-02','Kazuhito','Cappelletti','M','1995-01-27'),
(10017,'1958-07-06','Cristinel','Bouloucos','F','1993-08-03'),
(10018,'1954-06-19','Kazuhide','Peha','F','1987-04-03'),
(10019,'1953-01-23','Lillian','Haddadi','M','1999-04-30'),
(10020,'1952-12-24','Mayuko','Warwick','M','1991-01-26');INSERT INTO salaries VALUES (10001,60117,'1986-06-26','1987-06-26'),
(10001,62102,'1987-06-26','1988-06-25'),
(10001,66074,'1988-06-25','1989-06-25'),
(10001,66596,'1989-06-25','1990-06-25'),
(10001,66961,'1990-06-25','1991-06-25'),
(10001,71046,'1991-06-25','1992-06-24'),
(10001,74333,'1992-06-24','1993-06-24'),
(10001,75286,'1993-06-24','1994-06-24'),
(10001,75994,'1994-06-24','1995-06-24'),
(10001,76884,'1995-06-24','1996-06-23'),
(10001,80013,'1996-06-23','1997-06-23'),
(10001,81025,'1997-06-23','1998-06-23'),
(10001,81097,'1998-06-23','1999-06-23');An Example
Let's start with an example where we have a sub query of employees and want to select from them.
with early_employees as (
select * from employees
where hire_date < '1999-01-01'
)
select * from early_employees where gender = 'F';| emp_no | birth_date | first_name | last_name | gender | hire_date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10002 | 1964-06-02 | Bezalel | Simmel | F | 1985-11-21 |
| 10006 | 1953-04-20 | Anneke | Preusig | F | 1989-06-02 |
| 10007 | 1957-05-23 | Tzvetan | Zielinski | F | 1989-02-10 |
| 10009 | 1952-04-19 | Sumant | Peac | F | 1985-02-18 |
| 10010 | 1963-06-01 | Duangkaew | Piveteau | F | 1989-08-24 |
| 10011 | 1953-11-07 | Mary | Sluis | F | 1990-01-22 |
| 10017 | 1958-07-06 | Cristinel | Bouloucos | F | 1993-08-03 |
| 10018 | 1954-06-19 | Kazuhide | Peha | F | 1987-04-03 |
We can also chain together multiple CTE using a comma after each CTE. Notice we use the WITH statement only once.
with early_employees as (
select * from employees
where hire_date < '1999-01-01'
),
employee_salaries as (
select * from salaries s
join early_employees ee on ee.emp_no = s.emp_no
where salary > 66000
)
select max(salary) from employee_salaries;| max |
|---|
| 81097 |