Andrew, while I get that you want to reduce the scope of re-work on your project, think about it this way: you’re attempting to convert code that was never standards compliant with yet another solution that isn’t standards compliant, and so will have to be converted again at some point.
ANSI SQL exists to allow developers of all types to use a common syntax across a massive programming landscape. While each database platform has its own SQL nuances, the core ANSI compliance allows me to code for Postgres, SQL Server and Mysql with almost no brainwave activity…that is so valuable, well, it’s priceless.
If you go the route of homebrewing a code solution, the app will stay outside the coding mainstream, making the next person to take your role very hard to find, if they can be found at all. I always think of the customer’s long term interests, in addition to the short term pain/cost…and I do feel your pain – there will be no shortcut to the endzone for you, with that much non-standard code to update.
Mike
From: Andrew Smith
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2016 12:00 AM
I would have thought that being able to reduce the complexity of long SQL statements would be seen as a new capability, but if it isn't desirable then I'll download the code and start looking into it. At the very least I'll probably have to provide a homebrew alternative to psql as we've got heaps of scripts written in this syntax which will take a very long time to port across to standard SQL.