Question

I do have the following table:

create table test_seq (id int, obs int);
insert into test_seq values (1,1);
insert into test_seq values (2,1);
insert into test_seq values (3,1);
insert into test_seq values (4,0);
insert into test_seq values (5,0);
insert into test_seq values (6,1);
insert into test_seq values (7,1);
insert into test_seq values (8,0);
insert into test_seq values (9,0);
insert into test_seq values (10,1);
insert into test_seq values (11,0);

Is there s SQL way, how to create the following output?

id   obs    seq_num
 1     1          1
 2     1          1
 3     1          1
 4     0          2
 5     0          2
 6     1          3
 7     1          3
 8     0          4
 9     0          4
10     1          5
11     0          6

seq_num is increased by 1 every time when value in column obs is changed compared to the previous row (ordered by id). I can solve this easily in Excel (using simple if formula), but can’t figure out this in postgres.

Answer 1

using analytic functions, something like :

select id, obs, sum(cnt) over (order by id) as seq_num
from (
  select id, obs, case when obs <> (lag(obs) over (order by id)) then 1 else 0 end as cnt
  from test_seq
)
order by id;