Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net> writes:
>> Excellent. I checked that psql's colon-variable feature behaves the
>> same. So it looks like the proposed "name: value" syntax would indeed
>> not break any existing features. Barring better ideas I think we should
>> go with that one.
> Does that mean the whitespace following the : will be required? (I could
> figure it out but brain is otherwise occupied).
Only if what's immediately after the colon is an identifier, and
possibly not even then depending on the client-side context. For
instance psql won't do anything unless the identifier matches one
of its variables. We'd definitely want to document a recommendation
to leave a space there, though.
regards, tom lane