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From: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
Message-Id: <201109051556.p85Fu3Q05428@momjian.us>
Subject: Re: 'literal' for numbers
In-Reply-To: <201102080158.p181w8J04985@momjian.us>
To: Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2011 11:56:03 -0400 (EDT)
CC: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>,
	PostgreSQL-documentation <pgsql-docs@postgresql.org>
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Bruce Momjian wrote:
> > So I guess I'm back agreeing with you.  Basically, it seems like we
> > ought to use <literal> if it's being used as a value that the user
> > might want to supply (e.g. "if you set this parameter to 0, then no
> > statements will be logged).  It shouldn't use <literal> if it's just
> > being used as a number (e.g. "this query will return all airplanes
> > with a height of less than 30,000 feet").  The cases I'm unsure about
> > are the ones where we're talking about a return value (e.g. in the
> > event of an error, this function will return -1).
> 
> Robert, based on your logic, the 'return -1' should not be literal
> because no one would type that in.  Unless I hear otherwise I will work
> on a patch to match the rules you outlined above.

FYI, here is what I thought was Robert's conclusion on this.

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

  + It's impossible for everything to be true. +