How to concatenate strings of a string field in a PostgreSQL 'group by' query?

Question

I am looking for a way to concatenate the strings of a field within a group by query. So for example, I have a table:

ID   COMPANY_ID   EMPLOYEE
1    1               


        

Answer 1

Following yet again on the use of a custom aggregate function of string concatenation: you need to remember that the select statement will place rows in any order, so you will need to do a sub select in the from statement with an order by clause, and then an outer select with a group by clause to aggregate the strings, thus:

SELECT custom_aggregate(MY.special_strings)
FROM (SELECT special_strings, grouping_column 
        FROM a_table 
        ORDER BY ordering_column) MY
GROUP BY MY.grouping_column