Re: Greatest/Least functions? - Mailing list pgsql-general

Mike Nolan wrote:
> As far as I can tell, Postgres has no equivalent to greatest and least
> functions in Oracle.  Yes, you can do the same thing with a case statement,
> but at the expense of writing MUCH longer SQL statements.
>
> Is this something that is on or can be added to the 'to do' list?
>
> I could write a series of user-defined functions to do specific
> comparisons (such as comparing several dates and returning the greatest
> one) but there doesn't appear to be a way to write a user function with a
> variable number of parameters, either, so I guess I'd have to define a
> series of them with 2,3,4,... parameters.

There was a thread on this last year in July -- see:
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-sql/2003-07/msg00001.php

It doesn't seem to have made it into the archives, but I posted this
solution to the SQL list on 2 July, 2003:
-----------------------------
create or replace function make_greatest() returns text as '
declare
   v_args int := 32;
   v_first text := ''create or replace function greatest(anyelement,
anyelement) returns anyelement as ''''select case when $1 > $2 then $1
else $2 end'''' language ''''sql'''''';
   v_part1 text := ''create or replace function greatest(anyelement'';
   v_part2 text := '') returns anyelement as ''''select greatest($1,
greatest($2'';
   v_part3 text := ''))'''' language ''''sql'''''';
   v_sql text;
begin
   execute v_first;
   for i in 3 .. v_args loop
     v_sql := v_part1;
     for j in 2 .. i loop
       v_sql := v_sql || '',anyelement'';
     end loop;

     v_sql := v_sql || v_part2;

     for j in 3 .. i loop
       v_sql := v_sql || '',$'' || j::text;
     end loop;

     v_sql := v_sql || v_part3;

     execute v_sql;
   end loop;
   return ''OK'';
end;
' language 'plpgsql';

select make_greatest();

Now you should have 31 "greatest" functions, accepting from 2 to 32
arguments. *Not* heavily tested, but seemed to work for me.

regression=# select
greatest(112,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,1234,2,3,4,5,66,7,8,9,10,1,27,3,4,5,6,347,8,9,10,1,2);
  greatest
----------
      1234
(1 row)
-----------------------------

Here are more examples:

regression=# select greatest('c'::text,'a','Z','%');
  greatest
----------
  c
(1 row)

regression=# select greatest(now(),'today','tomorrow');
         greatest
------------------------
  2004-08-23 00:00:00-07
(1 row)

regression=# explain analyze select
greatest(112,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,1234,2,3,4,5,66,7,8,9,10,1,27,3,4,5,6,347,8,9,10,1,2);
                                      QUERY PLAN
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Result  (cost=0.00..0.01 rows=1 width=0) (actual time=0.007..0.009
rows=1 loops=1)
  Total runtime: 0.049 ms
(2 rows)


SQL function inlining in pg >=7.4 rewrites ensures there isn't even
function call overhead to be concerned with.

HTH,

Joe