Re: DROP COLUMN status

>>>> The implementation makes the dropped column invisible by
>>>> changing its attnum to -attnum - offset(currently 20) and
>>>> attnam to ("*already Dropped%d",attnum).
>> 
>> Ugh.  No wonder you had to hack so many places in such an ugly fashion.
>> Why not leave the attnum as-is, and just add a bool saying "column is
>> dropped" to pg_attribute?  As long as the parser ignores columns marked
>> that way for field lookup and expansion of *, it seems the rest of the
>> system wouldn't need to treat dropped columns specially in any way.

> If we leave it as positive, don't we have to change user applications
> that query pg_attribute so they also know to skip it?

Good point, but I think user applications that query pg_attribute
are likely to have trouble anyway: if they're expecting a consecutive
series of attnums then they're going to lose no matter what.
        regards, tom lane