[sql] PostgreSQL unnest() with element number

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,no,pq
3  |rstuv,wxyz

select id, unnest(string_to_array(elements, ',')) AS elem
from myTable

id | elem
---+-----
1  | ab
1  | cd
1  | efg
1  | hi
2  | jk
...

How can I include element numbers? I.e.:

id | elem | nr
---+------+---
1  | ab   | 1
1  | cd   | 2
1  | efg  | 3
1  | hi   | 4
2  | jk   | 1
...

I want the original position of each element in the source string. I've tried with window functions (row_number(), rank() etc.) but I always get 1. Maybe because they are in the same row of the source table?

I know it's a bad table design. It's not mine, I'm just trying to fix it.

Try:

select v.*, row_number() over (partition by id order by elem) rn from
(select
    id,
    unnest(string_to_array(elements, ',')) AS elem
 from myTable) v

If the order of element is not important, you can

select 
  id, elem, row_number() over (partition by id) as nr
from (
  select
      id,
      unnest(string_to_array(elements, ',')) AS elem
  from myTable
) a

unnest2() as exercise

Older versions before pg v8.4 need a user-defined unnest(). We can adapt this old function to return elements with an index:

CREATE FUNCTION unnest2(anyarray)
  RETURNS setof record  AS
$BODY$
  SELECT $1[i], i
  FROM   generate_series(array_lower($1,1),
                         array_upper($1,1)) i;
$BODY$ LANGUAGE sql IMMUTABLE;

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
;