Array

Syntax

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ARRAY [ param ]

or

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'{ param }'

The param parameter is described as follows:

• param: value contained in the array. It can be zero or many. Multiple values are separated by commas (,). If there is no value, set this parameter to NULL.
• When you specify an array constant in '{ param }' format, the elements of the string type cannot start or end with a single quotation mark. Instead, a double quotation mark is needed. Two consecutive single quotation marks will be converted to one single quotation mark.
• The data type of the first element is used as the data type of the array. All elements in an array must be of the same type, or their types can be converted to each other.

Definition of the Array Type

An array type is defined by adding values in the square brackets ([]) at the end of a data type.

Create the books table. The type of the price column (book prices) is a one-dimensional integer array, and the type of the tags column (book tags) is a two-dimensional text array.

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CREATE TABLE books (id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY, title VARCHAR(100), price_by_quarter int[], tags TEXT[][]);

The CREATE TABLE syntax can specify the array size. For example:

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CREATE TABLE test ( a int[3]);

In current database implementation, the array size limits of statements are ignored. Statements with array size limits behave the same as those without. At the same time, the number of declared dimensions is not required. Arrays of a particular element type are all treated as the same type. Their size or number of dimensions are ignored.

You can also use the keyword ARRAY to define a one-dimensional array. The price column in the books table is defined using ARRAY and the array size is specified as follows:

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price_by_quarter int ARRAY[4]

Use ARRAY without specifying the array size:

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price_by_quarter int ARRAY

Array Value Input

When entering an array value, write each array value as a literal constant, surround element values with braces, and separate them with commas. The general format of an array constant is as follows:

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'{ val1 delim val2 delim ... }'

delim indicates a delimiter, and each val may be a constant or a subarray of an array element type.

An example of an array constant is as follows:

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'{{1,2,3},{4,5,6},{7,8,9}}'

The constant is a two-dimensional, 3-by-3 array consisting of three integer subarrays.

Insert data into the books table and query the books table.

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INSERT INTO books 
  VALUES (1, 'One Hundred years of Solitude','{25,25,25,25}','{{"fiction"}, {"adventure"}}'),
         (2, 'Robinson Crusoe', '{30,32,32,32}', '{{"adventure"}, {"fiction"}}'),
         (3, 'Gone with the Wind', '{27,27,29,28}', '{{"romance"}, {"fantasy"}}');  
 
SELECT * FROM books;
 id |             title             | price_by_quarter |          tags
----+-------------------------------+------------------+-------------------------
  1 | One Hundred years of Solitude | {25,25,25,25}    | {{fiction},{adventure}}
  2 | Robinson Crusoe               | {30,32,32,32}    | {{adventure},{fiction}}
  3 | Gone with the Wind            | {27,27,29,28}    | {{romance},{fantasy}}
(3 rows)

When multi-dimensional array data is inserted, each dimension of the array must have a matching length.

Use the ARRAY keyword to insert data.

INSERT INTO books 
  VALUES (1, 'One Hundred years of Solitude',ARRAY[25,25,25,25],ARRAY['fiction', 'adventure']),
         (2, 'Robinson Crusoe', ARRAY[30,32,32,32], ARRAY['adventure', 'fiction']),
         (3, 'Gone with the Wind', ARRAY[27,27,29,28], ARRAY['romance', 'fantasy']);

Accessing Arrays

Accessing Array Elements

Query the names of the books whose prices change in the second quarter.

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SELECT title FROM books WHERE price_by_quarter[1] <> price_by_quarter[2];
      title
-----------------
 Robinson Crusoe
(1 row)

Search for the prices of all books in the third quarter:

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SELECT price_by_quarter[3] FROM books;
 price_by_quarter
------------------
               29
               25
               32
(3 rows)

Accessing Array Slices

Any rectangular slice or subarray of an array can be accessed. An array slice can be defined by specifying [lower bound: upper bound] on one or more array dimensions.

Query the second label of Gone with the Wind.

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SELECT tags[2:2] FROM books WHERE title = 'Gone with the Wind';
   tags
-----------
 {fantasy}
(1 row)

Using Functions to Access Arrays

Use the array_dims function to obtain the dimension of an array value.

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SELECT array_dims(tags) FROM books WHERE title = 'Robinson Crusoe';
 array_dims
------------
 [1:2]
(1 row)

You can also use array_upper and array_lower to obtain the array dimension. They return the upper and lower bounds of a specified array, respectively.

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SELECT array_upper(tags, 1) FROM books WHERE title = 'Robinson Crusoe';
 array_upper
-------------
           2
(1 row)

The array_length function returns the length of a specified array dimension.

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SELECT array_length(tags, 1) FROM books WHERE title = 'Robinson Crusoe';
 array_length
--------------
            2
(1 row)

Modifying an Array

Updating an Array

Update the entire array data:

UPDATE books SET price_by_quarter = '{30,30,30,30}'
     WHERE title = 'Robinson Crusoe';

Use the ARRAY expression to update the entire array data:

UPDATE books SET price_by_quarter = ARRAY[30,30,30,30]
     WHERE title = 'Robinson Crusoe';

Update an element in the array:

UPDATE books SET price_by_quarter[4] = 35
     WHERE title = 'Robinson Crusoe';

Update a slice element in the array:

UPDATE books SET price_by_quarter[1:2] = '{27,27}'
     WHERE title = 'Robinson Crusoe';

A stored array value can be expanded by assigning a value to a new element. The position between an existing element and the new element is filled with null values. For example, if the array myarray currently has four elements, it will have six elements after a value is assigned to myarray[6] using UPDATE. myarray[5] is filled with null. Currently, this method can be used only on one-dimensional arrays.

Building a New Array

New arrays can also be constructed using the concatenation operator ||. The concatenation operator allows a single element to be added to the beginning or end of a one-dimensional array. It can also accept two N dimensional arrays, or an N dimensional array and an N+1 dimensional array.

SELECT ARRAY[1,2] || ARRAY[3,4];
 ?column?
-----------
 {1,2,3,4}
(1 row)

SELECT ARRAY[5,6] || ARRAY[[1,2],[3,4]];
      ?column?
---------------------
 {{5,6},{1,2},{3,4}}
(1 row) 

Use the array_prepend, array_append, or array_cat function to build an array.

SELECT array_prepend(1, ARRAY[2,3]);
 array_prepend
---------------
 {1,2,3}
(1 row)

SELECT array_append(ARRAY[1,2], 3);
 array_append
--------------
 {1,2,3}
(1 row)

SELECT array_cat(ARRAY[1,2], ARRAY[3,4]);
 array_cat
-----------
 {1,2,3,4}
(1 row)

SELECT array_cat(ARRAY[[1,2],[3,4]], ARRAY[5,6]);

      array_cat
---------------------
 {{1,2},{3,4},{5,6}}
(1 row)

SELECT array_cat(ARRAY[5,6], ARRAY[[1,2],[3,4]]);
      array_cat
---------------------
 {{5,6},{1,2},{3,4}}
(1 row)