Question

I have table messages

| id | user_id | recepient_id | message
| 1  |    1    |      2       | test1
| 2  |    1    |      2       | test2
| 3  |    2    |      1       | test3
| 4  |    3    |      1       | test4
| 5  |    3    |      2       | test5

I am user with id 1 and want to select rows where i am is a user_id or recepient_id (but only 1 row per user_id/recepient_id pair). It this example i want to select messages with ids – 2, 4 (or 1, 4 or 2, 3 or 2, 4. doesnt matter. just get uniq pairs for user_id/recepient_id)

How can i do it?

Answer 1

select distinct on (least(user_id, recipient_id), greatest(user_id, recipient_id))
    id, user_id, recipient_id, message
from the_table
where user_id = 1 or recipient_id = 1