Re: Arrays vs separate system catalogs

Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net> writes:
> During my coding of the per-user/database settings, it occurred to me one
> more time that arrays are evil.  Basically, the initial idea was to have a
> column pg_database.datconfig that contains, say,
> '{"geqo_threshold=55","enable_seqscan=off"}'.  Just inserting and deleting
> in arrays is terrible, let alone querying them in a reasonable manner.
> We're getting killed by this every day in the privileges and groups case.

> What are people's thoughts on where (variable-length) arrays are OK in
> system catalogs, and where a new system catalog should be created?

Seems like an array is a perfectly fine representation, and what's
lacking are suitable operators.  Maybe we should think about inventing
some operators, rather than giving up on arrays.
        regards, tom lane