Re: How to "paste two tables side-by-side"?

On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 7:39 AM, Kynn Jones <kynnjo(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:

> Suppose I have two tables, A and B, with k(A) and k(B) columns
> respectively, and let's assume to begin with that they have the same number
> of rows r(A) = r(B) = r.
> What's the simplest way to produce a table C having r rows and k(A) + k(B)
> columns, and whose i-th row consists of the k(A) columns of the i-th row of
> A followed by the k(B) columns of the i-th row of B (for i = 1,...,r)? (By
> "i-th row of A" I mean the i-th row of the listing one would get from
> "SELECT * FROM A", and likewise for B.)
>

Expanding on my own post here, it occurred to me that it would be very nice
to have a function (say) index, that, when used in a SELECT list, would
yield the position in the corresponding table of the current row. E.g. the
expression

SELECT index(*) FROM A;

would produce the same table as

SELECT generate_series( 1, r(A) );

It would also be useful to have a "subscripting function" s (which may be
regarded as somewhat of the inverse of index()) that, given a table
expression E, and an "index expression" I (which could be a single index or
range, or a list of such), will return the table consisting of the rows in E
designated by the indices in I). For example, either one these queries

SELECT s( A, 1, 2, 3 );
SELECT * FROM s( A, 1, 2, 3 );

would produce the same table as

SELECT * FROM A LIMIT 3;

Does anything like index() or s() exist? If not, are there other functions
that may be useful in an implementation of index() or s()?

Thanks!

Kynn