SQL

Aggregate Multiple Related String Values into a Single Column

Learn to concatenate multiple string values from grouped rows into a single, comma-separated string within your SQL query, useful for tag lists or multi-valued attributes.

-- PostgreSQL
SELECT
    p.product_id,
    p.product_name,
    STRING_AGG(t.tag_name, ', ') AS tags
FROM
    products p
LEFT JOIN
    product_tags pt ON p.product_id = pt.product_id
LEFT JOIN
    tags t ON pt.tag_id = t.tag_id
GROUP BY
    p.product_id, p.product_name;

-- MySQL
SELECT
    p.product_id,
    p.product_name,
    GROUP_CONCAT(t.tag_name SEPARATOR ', ') AS tags
FROM
    products p
LEFT JOIN
    product_tags pt ON p.product_id = pt.product_id
LEFT JOIN
    tags t ON pt.tag_id = t.tag_id
GROUP BY
    p.product_id, p.product_name;
How it works: This snippet demonstrates how to aggregate multiple related string values (e.g., tags associated with a product) into a single, comma-separated string within the result set. This is achieved using STRING_AGG in PostgreSQL and GROUP_CONCAT in MySQL. It's particularly useful for displaying lists of attributes or categories directly alongside the main entity without needing additional queries or complex application-level logic.

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