In postgresql – selecting maximum for each group, we saw the actual stored function.  That was the easy part.  Then there was dealing with Postgresql and JDBC.  I encountered a few surprises while doing this. Calling the stored function I expected to use JDBC’s CallableStatement since I was calling a stored procedure.  Nope.  The proper [...]

I had a requirement to return the thread with the most replies in each forum at JavaRanch‘s Coderanch forums.  In Postgresql 8.4, this would be very easy – just use the window functions.  Unfortunately, we aren’t on Postgresql 8.4 yet.  The other common pattern is something like SELECT stuff FROM mytable t1 WHERE date = [...]

I went to a bank yesterday to inquire why I was receiving mail at my old address despite having moved a number of months ago.  The first thing the representative did was pull up my record to show me that my address was correct in their system.  While that’s very nice, the mail has their [...]