Problem: we have a time-based price table; Traditional joins against this table get NULL results if there is a time which does not exactly match.
Solution: "ASOF JOIN" picks a good value for "in the gap" values.
First, we create a price table and sales table.
CREATE TABLE prices AS (
SELECT '2001-01-01 00:16:00'::TIMESTAMP + INTERVAL (v) MINUTE AS ticker_time,
v AS unit_price
FROM range(0,5) vals(v)
);
create table sales(item text, sale_time timestamp, quantity int);
insert into sales values('a', '2001-01-01 00:18:00', 10);
insert into sales values('b', '2001-01-01 00:18:30', 20);
insert into sales values('c', '2001-01-01 00:19:00', 30);
We can see that we have a unit_price defined for each hour, but not for half hours.
SELECT * FROM prices;
┌─────────────────────┬────────────┐
│ ticker_time │ unit_price │
│ timestamp │ int64 │
├─────────────────────┼────────────┤
│ 2001-01-01 00:16:00 │ 0 │
│ 2001-01-01 00:17:00 │ 1 │
│ 2001-01-01 00:18:00 │ 2 │ No unit_price for 18:30!
│ 2001-01-01 00:19:00 │ 3 │
│ 2001-01-01 00:20:00 │ 4 │
└─────────────────────┴────────────┘
SELECT * FROM sales;
┌─────────┬─────────────────────┬──────────┐
│ item │ sale_time │ quantity │
│ varchar │ timestamp │ int32 │
├─────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ a │ 2001-01-01 00:18:00 │ 10 │
│ b │ 2001-01-01 00:18:30 │ 20 │ A sale time of 18:30!
│ c │ 2001-01-01 00:19:00 │ 30 │
└─────────┴─────────────────────┴──────────┘
With a normal LEFT JOIN, there is a problem for the 18:30 sale. Since there is not a sale_time of 18:30, a join against that time will be NULL.
-- no price value for 18:30, so item b's unit_price and total are NULL!
SELECT s.*, p.unit_price, s.quantity * p.unit_price AS total
FROM sales s LEFT JOIN prices p
ON s.sale_time = p.ticker_time;
┌─────────┬─────────────────────┬──────────┬────────────┬───────┐
│ item │ sale_time │ quantity │ unit_price │ total │
│ varchar │ timestamp │ int32 │ int64 │ int64 │
├─────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────┼────────────┼───────┤
│ a │ 2001-01-01 00:18:00 │ 10 │ 2 │ 20 │
│ c │ 2001-01-01 00:19:00 │ 30 │ 3 │ 90 │
│ b │ 2001-01-01 00:18:30 │ 20 │ NULL │ NULL │ NULL result!
└─────────┴─────────────────────┴──────────┴────────────┴───────┘
The ASOF JOIN picks a good price for the 18:30 sale. the ON s.sale_time >= pp.ticker_time
will cause the nearest lower value (in this case, for 18:00) to be used.
-- using ASOF, 18:30 "rounds down" to use the 18:00 unit_price
SELECT s.*, p.unit_price, s.quantity * p.unit_price AS total_cost
FROM sales s ASOF LEFT JOIN prices p
ON s.sale_time >= p.ticker_time;
┌─────────┬─────────────────────┬──────────┬────────────┬────────────┐
│ item │ sale_time │ quantity │ unit_price │ total_cost │
│ varchar │ timestamp │ int32 │ int64 │ int64 │
├─────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────┼────────────┼────────────┤
│ a │ 2001-01-01 00:18:00 │ 10 │ 2 │ 20 │
│ b │ 2001-01-01 00:18:30 │ 20 │ 2 │ 40 │ Good result!
│ c │ 2001-01-01 00:19:00 │ 30 │ 3 │ 90 │
└─────────┴─────────────────────┴──────────┴────────────┴────────────┘