Issue #4532: Secondary Window Orderings

docs/sql/aggregates.md

@@ -28,11 +28,12 @@ SELECT LIST(region ORDER BY amount DESC) FROM sales;
 Aggregates are functions that *combine* multiple rows into a single value. Aggregates are different from scalar functions and window functions because they change the cardinality of the result. As such, aggregates can only be used in the `SELECT` and `HAVING` clauses of a SQL query.
 
 When the `DISTINCT` clause is provided, only distinct values are considered in the computation of the aggregate. This is typically used in combination with the `COUNT` aggregate to get the number of distinct elements; but it can be used together with any aggregate function in the system.
+There are some aggregates that are insensitive to duplicate values (e.g., `min` and `max`) and for them this clause is parsed and ignored.
 
 When the `ORDER BY` clause is provided, the values being aggregated are sorted before applying the function.
 Usually this is not important, but there are some order-sensitive aggregates that can have indeterminate results
 (e.g., `first`, `last`, `list` and `string_agg`). These can be made deterministic by ordering the arguments.
-For order-insensitive aggregates, this clause is parsed and applied, which is inefficient, but still produces the same result.
+For order-insensitive aggregates, this clause is parsed and ignored.
 
 ## General Aggregate Functions
 

docs/sql/window_functions.md

@@ -50,6 +50,50 @@ The table below shows the available general window functions.
 
 All [aggregate functions](aggregates) can be used in a windowing context.
 
+## DISTINCT Arguments
+
+All aggregate window functions support using a `DISTINCT` clause for the arguments. When the `DISTINCT` clause is
+provided, only distinct values are considered in the computation of the aggregate. This is typically used in combination
+with the `COUNT` aggregate to get the number of distinct elements; but it can be used together with any aggregate
+function in the system. There are some aggregates that are insensitive to duplicate values (e.g., `min`, `max`) and for
+them this clause is parsed and ignored.
+
+```sql
+-- Count the number of distinct users at a given point in time
+SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT name) OVER (ORDER BY time) FROM sales;
+-- Concatenate those distinct users into a list
+SELECT LIST(DISTINCT name) OVER (ORDER BY time) FROM sales;
+```
+
+### ORDER BY Arguments
+
+All aggregate window functions support using an `ORDER BY` clause that is different from the window ordering. When the
+`ORDER BY` clause is provided, the values being aggregated are sorted before applying the function. Usually this is not
+important, but there are some order-sensitive aggregates that can have indeterminate results (e.g., `mode`, `list` and
+`string_agg`). These can be made deterministic by ordering the arguments. For order-insensitive aggregates, this clause
+is parsed and ignored.
+
+```sql
+-- Compute the modal value up to each time, breaking ties in favour of the most recent value.
+SELECT MODE(value ORDER BY time DESC) OVER (ORDER BY time) FROM sales;
+```
+
+The SQL standard does not provide for using `ORDER BY` with general-purpose window functions, but we have extended all
+of these functions (except `dense_rank`) to accept this syntax and use framing to restrict the range that the secondary
+ordering applies to.
+
+```sql
+-- Compare each athlete's time in an event with the best time to date
+SELECT event, date, athlete, time
+    first_value(time ORDER BY time DESC) OVER w AS record_time,
+    first_value(athlete ORDER BY time DESC) OVER w AS record_athlete,
+FROM meet_results
+WINDOW w AS (PARTITION BY event ORDER BY datetime)
+ORDER BY ALL
+```
+
+Note that there is no comma separating the arguments from the `ORDER BY` clause.
+
 ## Ignoring NULLs
 
 The following functions support the `IGNORE NULLS` specification:
@@ -63,6 +107,7 @@ The following functions support the `IGNORE NULLS` specification:
 | `nth_value(expr any, nth integer)` | Skips `NULL` values when counting. | `nth_value(column, 2 IGNORE NULLS)` |
 
 Note that there is no comma separating the arguments from the `IGNORE NULLS` specification.
+Also note that the `IGNORE NULLS` specification must follow any `ORDER BY` argument specification.
 
 The inverse of `IGNORE NULLS` is `RESPECT NULLS`, which is the default for all functions.