Equivalent to unpivot() in PostgreSQL

Is there a unpivot equivalent function in PostgreSQL?

Solution 1:

Create an example table:

CREATE TEMP TABLE foo (id int, a text, b text, c text);
INSERT INTO foo VALUES (1, 'ant', 'cat', 'chimp'), (2, 'grape', 'mint', 'basil');

You can 'unpivot' or 'uncrosstab' using UNION ALL:

SELECT id,
       'a' AS colname,
       a AS thing
FROM foo
UNION ALL
SELECT id,
       'b' AS colname, 
       b AS thing
FROM foo
UNION ALL
SELECT id, 
       'c' AS colname,
       c AS thing
FROM foo
ORDER BY id;

This runs 3 different subqueries on foo, one for each column we want to unpivot, and returns, in one table, every record from each of the subqueries.

But that will scan the table N times, where N is the number of columns you want to unpivot. This is inefficient, and a big problem when, for example, you're working with a very large table that takes a long time to scan.

Instead, use:

SELECT id,
       unnest(array['a', 'b', 'c']) AS colname,
       unnest(array[a, b, c]) AS thing
FROM foo
ORDER BY id;

This is easier to write, and it will only scan the table once.

array[a, b, c] returns an array object, with the values of a, b, and c as it's elements. unnest(array[a, b, c]) breaks the results into one row for each of the array's elements.

Hope that helps!

Solution 2:

You could use VALUES() and JOIN LATERAL to unpivot the columns.

Sample data:

CREATE TABLE test(id int, a INT, b INT, c INT);
INSERT INTO test(id,a,b,c) VALUES (1,11,12,13),(2,21,22,23),(3,31,32,33);

Query:

SELECT t.id, s.col_name, s.col_value
FROM test t
JOIN LATERAL(VALUES('a',t.a),('b',t.b),('c',t.c)) s(col_name, col_value) ON TRUE;

DBFiddle Demo

Using this approach it is possible to unpivot multiple groups of columns at once.

EDIT

Using Zack's suggestion:

SELECT t.id, col_name, col_value
FROM test t
CROSS JOIN LATERAL (VALUES('a', t.a),('b', t.b),('c',t.c)) s(col_name, col_value);

<=>

SELECT t.id, col_name, col_value
FROM test t
,LATERAL (VALUES('a', t.a),('b', t.b),('c',t.c)) s(col_name, col_value);

db<>fiddle demo