PostgreSQL unnest() with element number

Question

When I have a column with separated values, I can use the unnest() function:

myTable
id | elements
---+------------
1  |ab,cd,efg,hi
2  |jk,lm,n         


        

Answer 1

Use Subscript Generating Functions.
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/functions-srf.html#FUNCTIONS-SRF-SUBSCRIPTS

For example:

SELECT 
  id
  , elements[i] AS elem
  , i AS nr
FROM
  ( SELECT 
      id
      , elements
      , generate_subscripts(elements, 1) AS i
    FROM
      ( SELECT
          id
          , string_to_array(elements, ',') AS elements
        FROM
          myTable
      ) AS foo
  ) bar
;

More simply:

SELECT
  id
  , unnest(elements) AS elem
  , generate_subscripts(elements, 1) AS nr
FROM
  ( SELECT
      id
      , string_to_array(elements, ',') AS elements
    FROM
      myTable
  ) AS foo
;