Thread: GSoC project suggestion: PIVOT ?

Hi all

The thought just occurred to me that a PIVOT feature might be a
respectable GSoC project.

tablefunc/crosstab works, but it's very clumsy to use, and difficult to
consume the data from. Going by Stack Overflow activity, pivot/crosstab
is second only to upsert when it comes to things that users find hard to
do in Pg.

I haven't investigated what'd be involved in implementing any integrated
form of pivoting, and I'm aware that there are some serious challenges
when it comes to generating a TupleDesc for pivot output. I thought I'd
raise it in case anyone has looked into this and has any comments on
whether this'd be a viable GSoC for an interested student.

-- Craig Ringer                   http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services

<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><br />On Sun, Mar 30, 2014 at 11:30 PM, Craig Ringer <<a
href="mailto:craig@2ndquadrant.com">craig@2ndquadrant.com</a>>wrote:<br />><br />> Hi all<br />><br />>
Thethought just occurred to me that a PIVOT feature might be a<br /> > respectable GSoC project.<br />><br />>
tablefunc/crosstabworks, but it's very clumsy to use, and difficult to<br />> consume the data from. Going by Stack
Overflowactivity, pivot/crosstab<br />> is second only to upsert when it comes to things that users find hard to<br
/>> do in Pg.<br />><br />> I haven't investigated what'd be involved in implementing any integrated<br />>
formof pivoting, and I'm aware that there are some serious challenges<br />> when it comes to generating a TupleDesc
forpivot output. I thought I'd<br /> > raise it in case anyone has looked into this and has any comments on<br
/>>whether this'd be a viable GSoC for an interested student.<br />><br /><br />It's a nice idea, but the
deadlineto students send a proposal was 21th April.<br /><br />Regards,<br /><br />--<br />Fabrízio de Royes Mello<br
/>Consultoria/CoachingPostgreSQL<br />>> Timbira: <a
href="http://www.timbira.com.br">http://www.timbira.com.br</a><br/>>> Blog sobre TI: <a
href="http://fabriziomello.blogspot.com">http://fabriziomello.blogspot.com</a><br/> >> Perfil Linkedin: <a
href="http://br.linkedin.com/in/fabriziomello">http://br.linkedin.com/in/fabriziomello</a><br/>>> Twitter: <a
href="http://twitter.com/fabriziomello">http://twitter.com/fabriziomello</a></div></div>

On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 1:36 PM, Fabrízio de Royes Mello
<fabriziomello@gmail.com> wrote:
> It's a nice idea, but the deadline to students send a proposal was 21th
> April.
21st of March. All the details are here:
http://www.postgresql.org/developer/summerofcode/
--
Michael

On 03/31/2014 12:49 PM, Michael Paquier wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 1:36 PM, Fabrízio de Royes Mello
> <fabriziomello@gmail.com> wrote:
>> It's a nice idea, but the deadline to students send a proposal was 21th
>> April.
> 21st of March. All the details are here:
> http://www.postgresql.org/developer/summerofcode/

Ah, thanks.

There's always next year. Still curious about whether anyone's
investigated it / tried it out.

-- Craig Ringer                   http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services

On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 1:36 PM, Fabrízio de Royes Mello
<fabriziomello@gmail.com> wrote:
> It's a nice idea, but the deadline to students send a proposal was 21th
> April.
21st of March. All the details are here:
http://www.postgresql.org/developer/summerofcode/

On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 1:14 AM, Craig Ringer <craig@2ndquadrant.com> wrote:
> On 03/31/2014 12:49 PM, Michael Paquier wrote:
>> On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 1:36 PM, Fabrízio de Royes Mello
>> <fabriziomello@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> It's a nice idea, but the deadline to students send a proposal was 21th
>>> April.
>> 21st of March. All the details are here:
>> http://www.postgresql.org/developer/summerofcode/
>
> Ah, thanks.
>
> There's always next year. Still curious about whether anyone's
> investigated it / tried it out.

I bet this is more complex than a typical GSoC student can handle.
Unless it's Alexander Korotkov.  :-)

--
Robert Haas
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company