sql - get JOIN table as array of results with PostgreSQL/NodeJS

Question

I'm creating an app where users are able to create questions, and others can upvote/downvote them.

The following is a part of my sql schema:

CREATE TABLE "questions" (
  id            SERIAL,
  content       VARCHAR(511) NOT NULL,
  created_at    TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE NOT NULL DEFAULT NOW(),
  CONSTRAINT    pk_question PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

CREATE TABLE "votes" (
  id            SERIAL,
  value         INT,
  question_id   INT NOT NULL,
  CONSTRAINT    pk_vote PRIMARY KEY (id),
  CONSTRAINT    fk_question_votes FOREIGN KEY (question_id) REFERENCES questions (id) MATCH SIMPLE ON UPDATE CASCADE ON DELETE CASCADE
);

What I would like to have is Postgres giving me each question with an array of votes, like that:

[{ // a question
  id: 1,
  content: 'huh?',
  votes: [{ // a vote
    id: 1,
    value: 1
  }, { // another vote
    id: 2,
    value: -1
  }]
}, { /*another question with votes*/ }]

I looked at aggregate functions (like array_agg()) but it gave me only the values. A JOIN gave me a question joined with a vote, and would force me to do server side operations, which I would prefer not to.

Is there any way to do that? Is my reasoning regarding what I want to obtain wrong?

Thanks for your time.

Answer 1

This is easy to do with pg-promise:

function buildTree(t) {
    const v = q => t.any('SELECT id, value FROM votes WHERE question_id = $1', q.id)
        .then(votes => {
            q.votes = votes;
            return q;
        });

    return t.map('SELECT * FROM questions', undefined, v).then(a => t.batch(a));
}

db.task(buildTree)
    .then(data => {
        console.log(data); // your data tree
    })
    .catch(error => {
        console.log(error);
    });

The same as above, but using ES7 async/await syntax:

await db.task(async t => {
    const questions = await t.any('SELECT * FROM questions');
    for(const q of questions) {
        q.votes = await t.any('SELECT id, value FROM votes WHERE question_id = $1', [q.id]);
    }
    return questions;
});
// method "task" resolves with the correct data tree

API: map, any, task, batch

---

Related questions:

• Get a parents + children tree with pg-promise
• Conditional task with pg-promise

---

And if you want to use just a single query, then using PostgreSQL 9.4 and later syntax you can do the following:

SELECT json_build_object('id', q.id, 'content', q.content, 'votes',
    (SELECT json_agg(json_build_object('id', v.id, 'value', v.value))
     FROM votes v WHERE q.id = v.question_id))
FROM questions q

And then your pg-promise example would be:

const query =
    `SELECT json_build_object('id', q.id, 'content', q.content, 'votes',
        (SELECT json_agg(json_build_object('id', v.id, 'value', v.value))
         FROM votes v WHERE q.id = v.question_id)) json
    FROM questions q`;
    
const data = await db.map(query, [], a => a.json);

And you definitely will want to keep such complex queries in external SQL files. See Query Files.

Conclusion

The choice between the two approaches presented above should be based on the performance requirements of your application:

• The single-query approach is faster, but is somewhat difficult to read or extend, being fairly verbose
• The multi-query approach is easier to understand and to extend, but it is not great for performance, due to dynamic number of queries executed.

UPDATE-1

The following related answer offers more options, by concatenating child queries, which will give a much improved performance: Combine nested loop queries to parent result pg-promise.

UPDATE-2

Another example added, using ES7 async/await approach.