Re: Simplifying OID lookups in the presence of namespaces

Joe Conway <mail@joeconway.com> writes:
> Tom Lane wrote:
>> Also, for functions and operators the name alone is not sufficient to
>> uniquely identify the object.  Type regproc currently throws an error
>> if asked to convert a nonunique function name; that severely limits its
>> usefulness.  I'm toying with allowing datatypes in the input string,
>> eg
>> 'sum(bigint)'::regproc
>> but I wonder if this will create compatibility problems.  In particular,
>> should the regproc and regoperator output converters include datatype
>> indicators in the output string?  (Always, never, only if not unique?)

> I'd be inclined to include datatype always. If you don't, how can you 
> use this for pg_dump, etc?

pg_dump would probably actually prefer not having type info in the
output string; it'll just have to strip it off in most places.  But
I don't have a good feeling for the needs of other applications,
so I was asking what other people thought.

If we supported both ways via two datatypes, we'd have all the bases
covered; I'm just wondering if it's worth the trouble.
        regards, tom lane

PS: interesting thought about enum ...