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* Accommodating alternative column values
@ 2024-07-02 21:47 Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 21:50 ` Re: Accommodating alternative column values Christophe Pettus <[email protected]>
0 siblings, 1 reply; 7+ messages in thread
From: Rich Shepard @ 2024-07-02 21:47 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: pgsql-general
In data made available from a state regulatory agency I find a few instances
where a facility contact has two email addresses. While multiple locations
are accommodated because they're in a table separate from the facility name
and details, all people associated with a facility and location are in a
'people' table with only one column for an email addresse.
While I could enter an additional email address in the 'comment' column if
I'm entering data for a single facility, I'm reformatting the downloaded
data so I can insert all new table data from one .sql file. Is there a way
to accommodate multiple email addresses other than entering both with a
forward slash separating them in the varchar(64) email address column?
Suggestions appreciated,
Rich
^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread
* Re: Accommodating alternative column values
2024-07-02 21:47 Accommodating alternative column values Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
@ 2024-07-02 21:50 ` Christophe Pettus <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 21:57 ` Re: Accommodating alternative column values Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
0 siblings, 1 reply; 7+ messages in thread
From: Christophe Pettus @ 2024-07-02 21:50 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Rich Shepard <[email protected]>; +Cc: pgsql-general
> On Jul 2, 2024, at 14:47, Rich Shepard <[email protected]> wrote:
> Is there a way
> to accommodate multiple email addresses other than entering both with a
> forward slash separating them in the varchar(64) email address column?
If you are absolutely 100% sure there will never be any metadata associated with each email address (like a "valid" flag), you can use TEXT[] array to store them. Otherwise, it's best to move them into a table with a foreign key back to the owning record.
^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread
* Re: Accommodating alternative column values
2024-07-02 21:47 Accommodating alternative column values Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 21:50 ` Re: Accommodating alternative column values Christophe Pettus <[email protected]>
@ 2024-07-02 21:57 ` Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 21:59 ` Re: Accommodating alternative column values Christophe Pettus <[email protected]>
0 siblings, 1 reply; 7+ messages in thread
From: Rich Shepard @ 2024-07-02 21:57 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: pgsql-general
On Tue, 2 Jul 2024, Christophe Pettus wrote:
> If you are absolutely 100% sure there will never be any metadata
> associated with each email address (like a "valid" flag), you can use
> TEXT[] array to store them. Otherwise, it's best to move them into a table
> with a foreign key back to the owning record.
Christophe,
Using text rather than varchar() is a good suggestion.
Thank you,
Rich
^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread
* Re: Accommodating alternative column values
2024-07-02 21:47 Accommodating alternative column values Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 21:50 ` Re: Accommodating alternative column values Christophe Pettus <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 21:57 ` Re: Accommodating alternative column values Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
@ 2024-07-02 21:59 ` Christophe Pettus <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 22:11 ` Re: Accommodating alternative column values Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
2024-07-03 13:58 ` Re: Accommodating alternative column values Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
0 siblings, 2 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: Christophe Pettus @ 2024-07-02 21:59 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Rich Shepard <[email protected]>; +Cc: pgsql-general
> On Jul 2, 2024, at 14:57, Rich Shepard <[email protected]> wrote:
> Using text rather than varchar() is a good suggestion.
To be clear, I wasn't suggesting stuffing them all into a text column with a delimiter, but storing them in a text *array* field, each email address one component of the array.
^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread
* Re: Accommodating alternative column values
2024-07-02 21:47 Accommodating alternative column values Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 21:50 ` Re: Accommodating alternative column values Christophe Pettus <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 21:57 ` Re: Accommodating alternative column values Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 21:59 ` Re: Accommodating alternative column values Christophe Pettus <[email protected]>
@ 2024-07-02 22:11 ` Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
1 sibling, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: Rich Shepard @ 2024-07-02 22:11 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: pgsql-general
On Tue, 2 Jul 2024, Christophe Pettus wrote:
> To be clear, I wasn't suggesting stuffing them all into a text column with
> a delimiter, but storing them in a text *array* field, each email address
> one component of the array.
Okay. I've not before done that and will learn how. This data set is the
only one I've encountered that has a very few multiple email addresses for a
person.
Thanks,
Rich
^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread
* Re: Accommodating alternative column values
2024-07-02 21:47 Accommodating alternative column values Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 21:50 ` Re: Accommodating alternative column values Christophe Pettus <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 21:57 ` Re: Accommodating alternative column values Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 21:59 ` Re: Accommodating alternative column values Christophe Pettus <[email protected]>
@ 2024-07-03 13:58 ` Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
2024-07-03 14:03 ` Re: Accommodating alternative column values David G. Johnston <[email protected]>
1 sibling, 1 reply; 7+ messages in thread
From: Rich Shepard @ 2024-07-03 13:58 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: pgsql-general
On Tue, 2 Jul 2024, Christophe Pettus wrote:
> To be clear, I wasn't suggesting stuffing them all into a text column with
> a delimiter, but storing them in a text *array* field, each email address
> one component of the array.
Christophe,
I'm not using the proper syntax and the postgres alter table doc has no
example in the alter column choices.
What I've tried:
bustrac=# alter table people alter column email set data type varchar(64) [];
ERROR: column "email" cannot be cast automatically to type character varying[]
HINT: You might need to specify "USING email::character varying(64)[]".
How do I incorporate the "USING email::..." string?
TIA,
Rich
^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread
* Re: Accommodating alternative column values
2024-07-02 21:47 Accommodating alternative column values Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 21:50 ` Re: Accommodating alternative column values Christophe Pettus <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 21:57 ` Re: Accommodating alternative column values Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 21:59 ` Re: Accommodating alternative column values Christophe Pettus <[email protected]>
2024-07-03 13:58 ` Re: Accommodating alternative column values Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
@ 2024-07-03 14:03 ` David G. Johnston <[email protected]>
0 siblings, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: David G. Johnston @ 2024-07-03 14:03 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Rich Shepard <[email protected]>; +Cc: pgsql-general
On Wednesday, July 3, 2024, Rich Shepard <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I'm not using the proper syntax and the postgres alter table doc has no
> example in the alter column choices.
Simpler syntax forms tend to get skipped over when doing examples.
>
> How do I incorporate the "USING email::..." string?
>
ALTER [ COLUMN ] *column_name* [ SET DATA ] TYPE *data_type* [ COLLATE
*collation* ] [ USING *expression* ]
David J.
^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread
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2024-07-02 21:47 Accommodating alternative column values Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 21:50 ` Christophe Pettus <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 21:57 ` Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 21:59 ` Christophe Pettus <[email protected]>
2024-07-02 22:11 ` Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
2024-07-03 13:58 ` Rich Shepard <[email protected]>
2024-07-03 14:03 ` David G. Johnston <[email protected]>
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