Dear Experts,

I have two tables containing chronological data, and I want to join them using the timestamps. The challenge is that the timestamps only match approximately.

My first attempt was something like

  t1 join t2 on (abs(t1.t-t2.t)<'1 min'::interval)

Of course there is no "abs" for intervals, and I couldn't think of anything better than this

  t1 join t2 on (t1.t-t2.t<'1 min'::interval and t2.t-t1.t<'1 min'::interval)

What indexes could I add to make this moderately efficient?

But that query isn't really good enough. There is no single "epsillon" value that works for this data set. I really want to find the closest match.

I feel that it ought to be possible to step through the two tables in timestamp order matching up elements. Is there any way to express this is SQL?

(One detail is that the left table has fewer rows than the right table, and I want one output row for each row in the left table.)

Many thanks for any suggestions.


Phil.


(You are welcome to CC: me in any replies.)





---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 1: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate
      subscribe-nomail command to [EMAIL PROTECTED] so that your
      message can get through to the mailing list cleanly

Reply via email to