how to exclude null values in array_agg like in string_agg using postgres?

Solution 1:

With postgresql-9.3 one can do this;

SELECT g.id,
   array_remove(array_agg(CASE WHEN g.canonical = 'Y' THEN g.users ELSE NULL END), NULL) canonical_users,
   array_remove(array_agg(CASE WHEN g.canonical = 'N' THEN g.users ELSE NULL END), NULL) non_canonical_users
FROM groups g 
GROUP BY g.id;

Update: with postgresql-9.4;

SELECT g.id,
   array_agg(g.users) FILTER (WHERE g.canonical = 'Y') canonical_users,
   array_agg(g.users) FILTER (WHERE g.canonical = 'N') non_canonical_users
FROM groups g 
GROUP BY g.id;

Solution 2:

select
    id,
    (select array_agg(a) from unnest(canonical_users) a where a is not null) canonical_users,
    (select array_agg(a) from unnest(non_canonical_users) a where a is not null) non_canonical_users
from (
    SELECT g.id,
           array_agg(CASE WHEN g.canonical = 'Y' THEN g.users ELSE NULL END) canonical_users,
           array_agg(CASE WHEN g.canonical = 'N' THEN g.users ELSE NULL END) non_canonical_users
    FROM groups g
    GROUP BY g.id
) s

Or, simpler and may be cheaper, using array_to_string which eliminates nulls:

SELECT
    g.id,
    array_to_string(
        array_agg(CASE WHEN g.canonical = 'Y' THEN g.users ELSE NULL END)
        , ','
    ) canonical_users,
    array_to_string(
        array_agg(CASE WHEN g.canonical = 'N' THEN g.users ELSE NULL END)
        , ','
    ) non_canonical_users
FROM groups g
GROUP BY g.id