On 1/2/17 12:25 PM, Robert Haas wrote:
>> But, I can easily imagine a good number of people deciding they want
>> mixed case on the server, and so quoting their identifiers. And, then
>> deciding PostgreSQL is defective, rather than deciding their favorite
>> administration or query tool is defective. Almost all of the tools I
>> tried worked fine when I had all lower case symbols on the server. Based
>> on observing the generated SQL, most of the tools that failed for me
>> when I had mixed case symbols on the server would work against a case
>> preserving mode in PostgreSQL. The tools generally pass through the
>> catalog reported symbols without manipulation.
> Right. Tom's argument makes a lot of sense when you think about this
> from the point of view of someone writing extensions or tools that are
> designed to work with anybody's PostgreSQL instance. When you think
> about it from the point of view of a user wanting to write an
> application that can work with any of a number of databases, then your
> argument has a lot of merit to it. I'm not sure there's any way to
> split the baby here: tool authors will obviously prefer that
> PostgreSQL's behavior in this area be invariable, while people trying
> to develop portable database applications will prefer configurability.
> As far as I can see, this is a zero sum game that is bound to have one
> winner and one loser.
I do wonder what the authors of those tools are using to test them. My
guess is they're just hitting the default postgres database, which has
no quotable identifiers.
I'd find it useful to have a contrib module/tool that would create a
full-blown test database that contains objects of every possible type,
including using identifiers that need quotes. It'd also be useful to
test leading and trailing whitespace.
Having this would be useful for seeing what some of the more unusual
objects look like in the catalog, and would simplify tests that I create
for my extensions somewhat. If tool authors knew it existed they could
use it for testing. It'd certainly be useful for testing things like
pg_dump and event triggers.
--
Jim Nasby, Data Architect, Blue Treble Consulting, Austin TX
Experts in Analytics, Data Architecture and PostgreSQL
Data in Trouble? Get it in Treble! http://BlueTreble.com
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