Re: Clarification reqeusted for "select * from a huge table"

Trevor Talbot wrote:
> On 11/12/07, Richard Huxton <dev@archonet.com> wrote:
>> Gokulakannan Somasundaram wrote:
> 
>>>>>     I also noticed that it doesn't crash with psql, but it takes a
>>>>> long time to show the first set of records. It takes a long time, even
>>>>> to quit after i pressed 'q'.
>>>>>    With oracle SQLPlus, it is quite instantaneous.
> 
>>> Imagine, you need a large batch operation. In oracle we can fire the
>>> SQL and we can be sure that the client won't crash, but with postgres
>>> we have a region of uncertainity.
>> Well, if your client doesn't know if it can handle 1 million rows, maybe
>> it shouldn't ask for them?
> 
> Isn't that exactly his point?  He's talking about the default behavior
> of clients designed for postgres, one of which is psql.

Psql isn't the client - you are.

--   Richard Huxton  Archonet Ltd