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Subject: Re: Appendix A. PostgreSQL Error Codes
From: "Jonathan S. Katz" <jkatz@postgresql.org>
In-Reply-To: <3933.1524949881@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2018 00:33:59 -0400
Cc: Andy Dossett <dossett@btinternet.com>,
 Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>,
 pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org
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References: <152482369232.19804.12598002996950785414@wrigleys.postgresql.org>
 <20180427133914.GB32454@momjian.us> <25849.1524842189@sss.pgh.pa.us>
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To: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
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> On Apr 28, 2018, at 5:11 PM, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
>=20
> "Andy Dossett" <dossett@btinternet.com> writes:
>> The use case is pretty simple; my system has thrown an SQL error =
code, I
>> want to know what it means.
>> Having the list in 'order by sqlstate' sequence would save me from =
having to
>> hunt up and down the list. And I can easily determine if the error =
code is
>> missing; I can then raise another bug report.
>=20
> Hm ... I'm not finding that to be a very compelling argument.  Reading =
the
> message text is usually *far* more illuminating, because the error =
codes
> are (in many cases) rather broad categories rather than exact =
conditions.
> For the use case of "why did I get this error", I'd say that looking =
in
> Appendix A is quite unhelpful, and sorting it differently wouldn't =
make
> it any more helpful.

Is this information we might want to add to the main part of the =
website?
We could provide the list of error codes in Appendix A as is right now,
reference to =E2=80=9Csee more info on "/support/sql-error-codes/=E2=80=9C=
 or some URL.
The table on such a page could contain features such as:

- sortable by number vs. alphabetical
- =E2=80=9Csearchable=E2=80=9D if needed (eliminate results)
- more information about what causes such errors, perhaps with an
example of the detailed message.

I don=E2=80=99t know if this would be helpful or not. Personally I=E2=80=99=
ve only looked
at the error codes section a handful of times, mostly out of curiosity =
or
experimenting with ORM/adapter type code.

Jonathan=