LISTAGG à la Oracle in PostgreSQL

pierre.forstmann@gmail.com

From: Pierre Forstmann <pierre.forstmann@gmail.com>
To: "pgsql-general@lists.postgresql.org" <pgsql-general@lists.postgresql.org>
Date: 2026-03-09T20:21:44Z
Lists: pgsql-general
Hello,

I can write a LISTAGG aggregate for:

create table emp(deptno numeric, ename text);

SELECT deptno, LISTAGG(ename, ','::text ORDER BY ename) AS employees 
FROM   emp GROUP BY deptno ORDER BY deptno;

I would like to know if is possible to create an aggregate LISTAGG that 
would work like in Oracle:

SELECT deptno,
        listagg(ename, ',') WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY ename) AS employees
FROM emp
GROUP BY deptno
ORDER BY deptno;

I failed and IA also failed. Claude says:

It is not possible to exactly replicate listagg(ename, ',') WITHIN GROUP 
(ORDER BY ename) as a custom PostgreSQL aggregate
because PostgreSQL strictly forbids ungrouped columns as direct 
arguments to ordered-set aggregates.

Do you agree ?