Postgres - Function to return the intersection of 2 ARRAYs?

SqlPostgresql

Sql Problem Overview


In postgresql, you can use the && operator to return t (true) if two arrays have common members, i.e. they overlap. Is there a function/operator that will return what those common members are?

i.e. something like this

select arrray_intersection(ARRAY[1, 4, 2], ARRAY[2, 3]);
ARRAY[2]

Sql Solutions


Solution 1 - Sql

Since 8.4, there are useful builtins in Postgres which make the function from the first answer easier and possibly faster (that's what EXPLAIN tells me, anyway: "(cost=0.00..0.07 rows=1 width=64)" for this query vs. "(cost=0.00..60.02 rows=1 width=64)" for the original one).

The simplified code is:

SELECT ARRAY
    (
        SELECT UNNEST(a1)
        INTERSECT
        SELECT UNNEST(a2)
    )
FROM  (
        SELECT  array['two', 'four', 'six'] AS a1
              , array['four', 'six', 'eight'] AS a2
      ) q;

and yeah, you can turn it into a function:

CREATE FUNCTION array_intersect(anyarray, anyarray)
  RETURNS anyarray
  language sql
as $FUNCTION$
    SELECT ARRAY(
        SELECT UNNEST($1)
        INTERSECT
        SELECT UNNEST($2)
    );
$FUNCTION$;

which you can call as

SELECT array_intersect(array['two', 'four', 'six']
                     , array['four', 'six', 'eight']);

But you can just as well call it inline too:

 SELECT array(select unnest(array['two', 'four', 'six']) intersect
              select unnest(array['four', 'six', 'eight']));

Solution 2 - Sql

Try & instead of &&

See PostgreSQL Docs for more.

Solution 3 - Sql

one another method..

SELECT ARRAY( SELECT * FROM UNNEST( $1 ) WHERE UNNEST = ANY( $2 ) );

Solution 4 - Sql

If you don't mind installing an extension, the intarray extension provides the & operator to do this as @dwc pointed out.:

SELECT ARRAY[1, 4, 2] & ARRAY[2, 3];

Returns {2}.

Solution 5 - Sql

You can use this function:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION intersection(anyarray, anyarray) RETURNS anyarray as $$
SELECT ARRAY(
    SELECT $1[i]
    FROM generate_series( array_lower($1, 1), array_upper($1, 1) ) i
    WHERE ARRAY[$1[i]] && $2
);
$$ language sql;

It should work with any kind of array, and you can use it like this:

SELECT intersection('{4,2,6}'::INT4[], '{2,3,4}'::INT4[]);

Solution 6 - Sql

SELECT  ARRAY
	    (
        SELECT  a1[s]
        FROM    generate_series(array_lower(a1, 1), array_upper(a1, 1)) s
        INTERSECT
        SELECT  a2[s]
        FROM    generate_series(array_lower(a2, 1), array_upper(a2, 1)) s
        )
FROM    (
        SELECT	array['two', 'four', 'six'] AS a1, array['four', 'six', 'eight'] AS a2
        ) q

Works on non-integer arrays too.

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Solution 1 - SqlbartView Answer on Stackoverflow
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