[SOLVED] Using an Alias column in the where clause in Postgresql

Using an Alias column in the where clause in Postgresql

I have a query like this:

SELECT
    jobs.*, 
    (
        CASE
            WHEN lead_informations.state IS NOT NULL THEN lead_informations.state
            ELSE 'NEW'
        END
    ) AS lead_state
FROM
    jobs
    LEFT JOIN lead_informations ON
        lead_informations.job_id = jobs.id
        AND
        lead_informations.mechanic_id = 3
WHERE
    lead_state = 'NEW'

Which gives the following error:

PGError: ERROR:  column "lead_state" does not exist
LINE 1: ...s.id AND lead_informations.mechanic_id = 3 WHERE (lead_state...

In MySql this is valid, but apparently not in Postgresql. From what I can gather, the reason is that the SELECT part of the query is evaluated later than the WHERE part. Is there a common workaround for this problem?

Solution

MySQL's support is, as you experienced, non-standard. The correct way is to reprint the same expression used in the SELECT clause:

SELECT
    jobs.*, 
    CASE 
         WHEN lead_informations.state IS NOT NULL THEN lead_informations.state 
         ELSE 'NEW' 
    END AS lead_state
FROM
    jobs
    LEFT JOIN lead_informations ON
        lead_informations.job_id = jobs.id
        AND
        lead_informations.mechanic_id = 3
WHERE
    lead_informations.state IS NULL