Re: DECODE

David,

> How does one do the equivalence of Oracle's DECODE in PostgreSQL?
>
> select
> decode (v.media, 'V', 'VHS', 'L', 'Laser Disk', 'Unknown')
> from
> videos v
> ;

Use a CASE statement:
SELECT (CASE WHEN v.media = 'V' THEN 'VHS'
WHEN v.media = 'L' THEN 'Laser Disk'
  ELSE 'Unknown' END) AS media_exp
FROM videos v;

If you wanted, you could write a PL/pgSQL function to simplify this,
using two array parameters to hold the lists.

HOWEVER, it would be far better than both of the above, relationally,
to
create a reference table populated with the appropriate values
(media_code, media_name) and JOIN the reference table. This would
prevent you from having to populate a special function on each and
every
query!

-Josh

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