Re: Crosstab SQL Question

On Thu, Jun 15, 2000 at 08:16:58AM -0400, Cary O'Brien wrote:
> > > > Is it possible to perform a crosstab query in postgres similar the
> > > > functionality that MS Access provides?
> > > ...
> > > you might want to describe what a crosstab query is...
> >
> > A crosstab is also known in MS Excel as a "pivot table", if that helps
> > any.  It facilitates drag-and-drop data analysis by creating arbitrary
> > 2-D matrices aggregated from data columns.  Very cool, and hard to
> > adequately describe, as it makes some complex operations very simple, and
> > I don't understand how it works underneath.  IMO, it is one of the most
> > powerful data analysis tools in existence.  It would be neat to be able
> > to do something similar in pgsql...

If I understand these reports correctly a crosstab is not a relational
query, but a small version of an OLAP engine. Usually this is not done by a
relational database server. For instance Oracle cannot do it either, you
need Oracle Express for this.

> Applix has something called TM1 that does this.  They have a (ug)

TM1 is an OLAP engine, albeit one that has problems with a larger amount of
data.

Michael
--
Michael Meskes
Michael@Fam-Meskes.De
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