Filtering by window function result in Postgresql

Question

Ok, initially this was just a joke we had with a friend of mine, but it turned into interesting technical question :)

I have the following stuff table:

CREATE TABLE stuff
(
    id serial PRIMARY KEY,
    volume integer NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
    priority smallint NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
);

The table contains the records for all of my stuff, with respective volume and priority (how much I need it).

I have a bag with specified volume, say 1000. I want to select from the table all stuff I can put into a bag, packing the most important stuff first.

This seems like the case for using window functions, so here is the query I came up with:

select s.*, sum(volume) OVER previous_rows as total
 from stuff s
 where total < 1000
 WINDOW previous_rows as
  (ORDER BY priority desc ROWS between UNBOUNDED PRECEDING and CURRENT ROW)
 order by priority desc

The problem with it, however, is that Postgres complains:

ERROR:  column "total" does not exist
LINE 3:  where total < 1000

If I remove this filter, total column gets properly calculated, results properly sorted but all stuff gets selected, which is not what I want.

So, how do I do this? How do I select only items that can fit into the bag?

Answer 1

I haven't worked with PostgreSQL. However, my best guess would be using an inline view.

SELECT a.*
FROM (
    SELECT s.*, sum(volume) OVER previous_rows AS total
    FROM stuff AS s
    WINDOW previous_rows AS (
         ORDER BY priority desc
         ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW
    )
    ORDER BY priority DESC
) AS a
WHERE a.total < 1000;

Answer 2

I don't know if this qualifies as "more elegant" but it is written in a different manner than Cybernate's solution (although it is essentially the same)

WITH window_table AS 
( 
   SELECT s.*, 
          sum(volume) OVER previous_rows as total
   FROM stuff s
   WINDOW previous_rows as 
        (ORDER BY priority desc ROWS between UNBOUNDED PRECEDING and CURRENT ROW)
) 
SELECT * 
FROM window_table
WHERE total < 1000
ORDER BY priority DESC 

If by "more elegant" you mean something that avoids the sub-select, then the answer is "no"