How to concatenate columns in a Postgres SELECT?
SqlPostgresqlTypesConcatenationCoalesceSql Problem Overview
I have two string columns a and b in a table foo.
select a, b from foo returns values a and b. However, concatenation of a and b does not work. I tried :
select a || b from foo
and
select a||', '||b from foo
Update from comments: both columns are type character(2).
Sql Solutions
Solution 1 - Sql
With string type columns like character(2) (as you mentioned later), the displayed concatenation just works because, quoting the manual:
> [...] the string concatenation operator (||) accepts non-string
> input, so long as at least one input is of a string type, as shown in
> Table 9.8. For other cases, insert an explicit coercion to text [...]
Bold emphasis mine. The 2nd example (select a||', '||b from foo) works for any data types since the untyped string literal ', ' defaults to type text making the whole expression valid in any case.
For non-string data types, you can "fix" the 1st statement by casting at least one argument to text. (Any type can be cast to text):
SELECT a::text || b AS ab FROM foo;
Judging from your own answer, "does not work" was supposed to mean "returns NULL". The result of anything concatenated to NULL is NULL. If NULL values can be involved and the result shall not be NULL, use concat_ws() to concatenate any number of values (Postgres 9.1 or later):
SELECT concat_ws(', ', a, b) AS ab FROM foo;
Separators are only added between non-null values, i.e. only where necessary.
Or concat() if you don't need separators:
SELECT concat(a, b) AS ab FROM foo;
No need for type casts here since both functions take "any" input and work with text representations.
More details (and why COALESCE is a poor substitute) in this related answer:
Regarding update in the comment
+ is not a valid operator for string concatenation in Postgres (or standard SQL). It's a private idea of Microsoft to add this to their products.
There is hardly any good reason to use character(n)char(n)text or varchar. Details:
Solution 2 - Sql
The problem was in nulls in the values; then the concatenation does not work with nulls. The solution is as follows:
SELECT coalesce(a, '') || coalesce(b, '') FROM foo;
Solution 3 - Sql
it is better to use CONCAT function in PostgreSQL for concatenation
eg : select CONCAT(first_name,last_name) from person where pid = 136
if you are using column_a || ' ' || column_b for concatenation for 2 column , if any of the value in column_a or column_b is null query will return null value. which may not be preferred in all cases.. so instead of this
> ||
use
> CONCAT
it will return relevant value if either of them have value
Solution 4 - Sql
CONCAT functions sometimes not work with older postgreSQL version
see what I used to solve problem without using CONCAT
u.first_name || ' ' || u.last_name as user,
Or also you can use
"first_name" || ' ' || "last_name" as user,
in second case I used double quotes for first_name and last_name
Hope this will be useful, thanks
Solution 5 - Sql
As i was also stuck in this, think i should share the solution that worked best for me. I also think that this is much simpler.
If you use Capitalized table name.
SELECT CONCAT("firstName", ' ', "lastName") FROM "User"
If you use lowercase table name
SELECT CONCAT(firstName, ' ', lastName) FROM user
That's it!. As PGSQL counts Double Quote for column declaration and Single Quote for string, this works like a charm.
Solution 6 - Sql
PHP's Laravel framework, I am using search first_name, last_name Fields consider like Full Name Search
> Using || symbol Or concat_ws(), concat() methods
$names = str_replace(" ", "", $searchKey);
$customers = Customer::where('organization_id',$this->user->organization_id)
->where(function ($q) use ($searchKey, $names) {
$q->orWhere('phone_number', 'ilike', "%{$searchKey}%");
$q->orWhere('email', 'ilike', "%{$searchKey}%");
$q->orWhereRaw('(first_name || last_name) LIKE ? ', '%' . $names. '%');
})->orderBy('created_at','desc')->paginate(20);
This worked charm!!!
Solution 7 - Sql
Try this
select concat_ws(' ', FirstName, LastName) AS Name from person;
Solution 8 - Sql
For example if there is employee table which consists of columns as:
employee_number,f_name,l_name,email_id,phone_number
if we want to concatenate f_name + l_name as name.
SELECT employee_number,f_name ::TEXT ||','|| l_name::TEXT AS "NAME",email_id,phone_number,designation FROM EMPLOYEE;