Subqueries
Narsimham Chelluri <nchelluri@gmail.com>
From: Narsimham Chelluri <nchelluri@gmail.com>
To: pgsql-novice@postgresql.org
Date: 2025-03-05T19:01:49Z
Lists: pgsql-novice
Hello,
Can someone please explain to me why my first query does not return an
error?
--
subquerytest=# create table something (id bigint generated always as
identity primary key);
CREATE TABLE
subquerytest=# create table somethingelse (asdf text);
CREATE TABLE
subquerytest=# select * from something where id in (select id from
somethingelse);
id
----
(0 rows)
subquerytest=# select id from somethingelse;
ERROR: column "id" does not exist
LINE 1: select id from somethingelse;
^
subquerytest=# select * from something where id in (select id);
id
----
(0 rows)
subquerytest=# select * from something where id in (select asdf);
ERROR: column "asdf" does not exist
LINE 1: select * from something where id in (select asdf);
^
subquerytest=#
--
I would imagine it has something to do with: "from something" means that
"id" is available in the subquery and refers to the column in "something"
and of course does not refer to "somethingelse" because that doesn't have
such a column on it. And that I would have to disambiguate if it did by
using aliases or table names preceding a dot.
If that is correct: I almost made a mistake in a subquery where I used the
wrong column in the subquery. Is it possible to make the subquery refer
only to values within its own specific from clause and error out otherwise?
Maybe I could do that with a CTE?
Thanks.
- Narsa