SELECT Distinct unnest(array_cat(ARRAY[1,2,3], ARRAY[1,2,4,5]))

anyarray: concatenate two arrays

unnest: expand an array to a set of rows

Results will be

1,2,3,4,5.

The manual provides a  good example.

CREATE TABLE db (a INT PRIMARY KEY, b TEXT);

CREATE FUNCTION merge_db(key INT, data TEXT) RETURNS VOID AS
$$
BEGIN
    LOOP
        -- first try to update the key
        UPDATE db SET b = data WHERE a = key;
        IF found THEN
            RETURN;
        END IF;
        -- not there, so try to insert the key
        -- if someone else inserts the same key concurrently,
        -- we could get a unique-key failure
        BEGIN
            INSERT INTO db(a,b) VALUES (key, data);
            RETURN;
        EXCEPTION WHEN unique_violation THEN
            -- do nothing, and loop to try the UPDATE again
        END;
    END LOOP;
END;
$$
LANGUAGE plpgsql;

SELECT merge_db(1, 'david');
SELECT merge_db(1, 'dennis');

However this can become time consuming to write on large/many  tables.

Here is a function that will generate a merge function skeleton for your tables

First create a text aggregate.

CREATE AGGREGATE textcat_all(
  basetype    = text,
  sfunc       = textcat,
  stype       = text,
  initcond    = ''
);

And here is the function.

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION admin.table_merge(_name text)
RETURNS text AS
$BODY$
Declare sql text;
Declare fsql text;
Declare isql text;
Declare usql text;
Declare psql text;
     BEGIN
	sql = 'Create or replace function admin.merge_'  || _name || '('; 

	SELECT INTO fsql,usql,isql,psql
	        textcat_all(('_'|| column_name || ' ' || data_type) || ', '),
	        textcat_all((column_name || '= _' || column_name) || ', '),
	        textcat_all((column_name) || ', '),
	        textcat_all(('_' || column_name) || ', ')
	FROM information_schema.columns
	WHERE  table_name = _name;

	sql = sql || substring(fsql, 0, length(fsql)-1) || ') RETURNS VOID AS
	$MERGE$
	BEGIN
	   LOOP
	      UPDATE ' || _name || ' SET ' || substring(usql, 0, length(usql)-1) ||  ' Where id = _id; '
	  || ' IF FOUND THEN
	          RETURN;
	      END IF; '
	  || 'BEGIN
	      INSERT INTO ' || _name || '(' || substring(isql, 0, length(isql)-1) || ') Values
	      (' || substring(psql, 0, length(psql)-1) || ');
	      RETURN;
	      EXCEPTION WHEN unique_violation THEN
	      END;
	   END LOOP;
	END;
	$MERGE$
	LANGUAGE ''plpgsql''
        COST 100;';
	return sql;
     END;
$BODY$
  LANGUAGE 'plpgsql'
  COST 100;

By overriding the TrySetIndex and TryGetIndex you can access properties you don’t know about at compile time.
dynamic person = new DynamicClass;
person["Name"] = “John Smith”;

A basic implementation.

public class DynamicClass : DynamicObject
{
        public Dictionary _dictionary = new Dictionary();

        public override bool TryGetMember(GetMemberBinder binder, out object result)
        {
            return _dictionary.TryGetValue(binder.Name, out result);
        }

        public override bool TrySetMember(SetMemberBinder binder, object value)
        {
            _dictionary[binder.Name] = value;
            return true;
        }

        public override bool TrySetIndex(
            SetIndexBinder binder, object[] indexes, object value)
        {
            if (dictionary.ContainsKey((string)indexes[0]))
                _dictionary[(string)indexes[0]] = value;
            else
                _dictionary.Add((string)indexes[0], value);
            return true;
        }
        public override bool TryGetIndex(
            GetIndexBinder binder, object[] indexes, out object result)
        {
            return _dictionary.TryGetValue((string)indexes[0], out result);
        }
}

I found a nice implementation on David Ebbo’s blog.
He is using dynamic to simplify data access by writing a wrapper for SQL queries.

I particularly like the Yield return within the data connection. I was at first concerned about this leaving open connections but used correctly connections area automatically cleaned up for you, check this out.

It all works well however it runs really slow. I would be wary of using dynamic if performance is a consideration.
I will post benchmarks soon.

Pg_unit is pretty bare bones  allowing you to basically  assert values are the same and as the the  forums are in Russian it is hard to find any further information.

I find it useful to write tests for all my validation logic, checks and constraints. This is useful when you  have lots of tables and data validation checks.

A basic example:

insert into inventory(code) values (‘a”);
PERFORM   pgunit.assert_fail(‘insert into inventory(code) values (”a”);’);

which  inserts a record and then asserts that the same  record cannot be inserted again.

As pg_unit runs all the  tests within a transaction that is rolled back none of your test code will affect your data.

Here is the function to assert failures.

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION pgunit.assert_fail(sql_statement text)
     RETURNS void AS
$BODY$
DECLARE ok boolean;
BEGIN
      BEGIN
            ok := false;
            execute  $1;
       EXCEPTION
       WHEN Others THEN
            ok := true;
       END;
       IF ok is false THEN
             PERFORM pgunit.fail('Should have Failed');
       END IF;
END;
$BODY$
LANGUAGE 'plpgsql' VOLATILE
COST 100;

int i;
Id = int.TryParse(“10″,out i) ? i : 0;

Pagination in MSSQL with total number of records.

although it is alot simpler in postgres
SELECT * , count(*) OVER()as total from “Table” limit 20 OFFSET 10

You usually handle it in code letting your favourite  ORM such as NHibernate  take  care of it for you.
There are times when you are required to hand-roll your own sql which is as simple as

SELECT * FROM <Table>  WHERE <Criteria> LIMIT 0, 10

or for SQL Server

ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY <Column>) AS RowNumber

But this doesn’t  return the total number of  records,  important for  presenting   ‘Page 1 of 380‘.
I assume  most would  do an additional sql call.

SELECT  COUNT(*)  FROM  <Table>  WHERE <Criteria>

In SQL Server it is easy to get both in one query.

WITH Results AS (
SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY <Column>) AS RowNumber,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY <Column> DESC)  AS RowNumberDesc,
* FROM <Table>
WHERE <Criteria>)
SELECT * FROM Results  WHERE RowNumber BETWEEN <Start> AND <End>

This will return the results  between <Start> and  <End>  ordered by <Column>.
You can  get the Total Number of records  by adding the <Start> value to the  RowNumberDesc  value of the first record returned.
Preliminary benchmarking shows that it performs faster than running the two queries method.

You now want to add some extra information to present any pre selected items.
By creating an anonymous type you can easily extend your product to add the additional information, Selected.

e.g
var test = new { Product = product, Selected = true};

Combining this with Linq makes it easy to return a list that contains the products and any other information required by the view engine

var selectedId = 3;
var products = (from p in _productRepository.GetAll()
select new { Product = p, Selected = p.Id == selectedId });

This will set selected as true for the product with the Id of 3.