Re: Backslash Escape Sequences

Andy Anderson wrote:
> >> Andy Anderson wrote:
> >>
> >>> In any case, here's a contribution to the manual, a short table with
> >>> this information, in a format that might help make the subject
> >>> clearer.
> >> Modify at will!
>
> > On Apr 30, 2008, at 6:04 PM, Alvaro Herrera wrote:
> >> FWIW if you really want to make a contribution to the docs, please
> >> see
> >> the SGML sources instead of the HTML output (which is machine-
> >> generated).
>
> OK, then, I hope the following is accurate enough SGML to be more
> useful. Submitted here per the instructions on <http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/interactive/bug-reporting.html

Good idea --- a table is certainly clearer.  I modified your patch and
applied the attached version.  Thanks much.

Your documentation changes can be viewed in five minutes at:

    http://developer.postgresql.org/pgdocs/postgres/index.html

--
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB                             http://enterprisedb.com

  + If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +
Index: doc/src/sgml/syntax.sgml
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/syntax.sgml,v
retrieving revision 1.122
diff -c -c -r1.122 syntax.sgml
*** doc/src/sgml/syntax.sgml    20 Mar 2008 21:42:47 -0000    1.122
--- doc/src/sgml/syntax.sgml    26 Jun 2008 22:24:11 -0000
***************
*** 286,304 ****
       quote.)
       Within an escape string, a backslash character (<literal>\</>) begins a
       C-like <firstterm>backslash escape</> sequence, in which the combination
!      of backslash and following character(s) represents a special byte value.
!      <literal>\b</literal> is a backspace,
!      <literal>\f</literal> is a form feed,
!      <literal>\n</literal> is a newline,
!      <literal>\r</literal> is a carriage return,
!      <literal>\t</literal> is a tab.
!      Also supported are
!      <literal>\<replaceable>digits</replaceable></literal>, where
!      <replaceable>digits</replaceable> represents an octal byte value, and
!      <literal>\x<replaceable>hexdigits</replaceable></literal>, where
!      <replaceable>hexdigits</replaceable> represents a hexadecimal byte value.
!      (It is your responsibility that the byte sequences you create are
!      valid characters in the server character set encoding.) Any other
       character following a backslash is taken literally. Thus, to
       include a backslash character, write two backslashes (<literal>\\</>).
       Also, a single quote can be included in an escape string by writing
--- 286,348 ----
       quote.)
       Within an escape string, a backslash character (<literal>\</>) begins a
       C-like <firstterm>backslash escape</> sequence, in which the combination
!      of backslash and following character(s) represent a special byte
!      value:
!
!      <table id="sql-backslash-table">
!       <title>Backslash Escape Sequences</title>
!       <tgroup cols="2">
!       <thead>
!        <row>
!         <entry>Backslash Escape Sequence</>
!         <entry>Interpretation</entry>
!        </row>
!       </thead>
!
!       <tbody>
!        <row>
!         <entry><literal>\b</literal></entry>
!         <entry>backspace</entry>
!        </row>
!        <row>
!         <entry><literal>\f</literal></entry>
!         <entry>form feed</entry>
!        </row>
!        <row>
!         <entry><literal>\n</literal></entry>
!         <entry>newline</entry>
!        </row>
!        <row>
!         <entry><literal>\r</literal></entry>
!         <entry>carriage return</entry>
!        </row>
!        <row>
!         <entry><literal>\t</literal></entry>
!         <entry>tab</entry>
!        </row>
!        <row>
!         <entry>
!          <literal>\<replaceable>o</replaceable></literal>,
!          <literal>\<replaceable>oo</replaceable></literal>,
!          <literal>\<replaceable>ooo</replaceable></literal>
!          (<replaceable>o</replaceable> = 0 - 7)
!         </entry>
!         <entry>octal byte value</entry>
!        </row>
!        <row>
!         <entry>
!          <literal>\x<replaceable>h</replaceable></literal>,
!          <literal>\x<replaceable>hh</replaceable></literal>
!          (<replaceable>h</replaceable> = 0 - 9, A - F)
!         </entry>
!         <entry>hexadecimal byte value</entry>
!        </row>
!       </tbody>
!       </tgroup>
!      </table>
!
!      It is your responsibility that the byte sequences you create are
!      valid characters in the server character set encoding. Any other
       character following a backslash is taken literally. Thus, to
       include a backslash character, write two backslashes (<literal>\\</>).
       Also, a single quote can be included in an escape string by writing