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* Reserved word "date" in tutorial example
@ 2013-05-21 14:19 Greg Smith <[email protected]>
2014-01-11 18:27 ` Re: Reserved word "date" in tutorial example Bruce Momjian <[email protected]>
0 siblings, 1 reply; 2+ messages in thread
From: Greg Smith @ 2013-05-21 14:19 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: pgsql-docs
doc/src/sgml/query.sgml includes a tutorial example with this definition:
CREATE TABLE weather (
...
date date
);
The fact that "date" is used for both the column name and the type is
highlighted by two later comments:
(Yes, the column of type date is also named date. This might be
convenient or confusing--you choose.)
type names are not key words in the syntax, except where required to
support special cases in the SQL standard.
But as a documentation comment submitted recently points out, "date"
*is* a reserved word in the SQL spec:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/interactive/sql-keywords-appendix.html
, just not in PostgreSQL. That makes using it as a column name in an
example an odd choice for a tutorial. The example is using the
ambiguity to point out where the line between what is and isn't legal is
at, and maybe that's a feature instead of a bug.
There are a few approaches that could improve on this:
-Keep all of that, but expand the description to link to "SQL Key
Words"--right now "SQL standard" doesn't go to that section--and say
this might be a reserved word in other SQL implementations. This is the
smallest useful improvement.
-Change the name of the column and remove the two related descriptions.
This will lose the lesson about where the parser's line is at.
-Do both: move this example of parser trivia somewhere else, but remove
it from the tutorial material by using a non-reserved column name there.
--
Greg Smith 2ndQuadrant US [email protected] Baltimore, MD
PostgreSQL Training, Services, and 24x7 Support www.2ndQuadrant.com
--
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^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 2+ messages in thread
* Re: Reserved word "date" in tutorial example
2013-05-21 14:19 Reserved word "date" in tutorial example Greg Smith <[email protected]>
@ 2014-01-11 18:27 ` Bruce Momjian <[email protected]>
0 siblings, 0 replies; 2+ messages in thread
From: Bruce Momjian @ 2014-01-11 18:27 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Greg Smith <[email protected]>; +Cc: pgsql-docs
On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 10:19:45AM -0400, Greg Smith wrote:
> doc/src/sgml/query.sgml includes a tutorial example with this definition:
>
> CREATE TABLE weather (
> ...
> date date
> );
>
> The fact that "date" is used for both the column name and the type
> is highlighted by two later comments:
>
> (Yes, the column of type date is also named date. This might be
> convenient or confusing--you choose.)
>
> type names are not key words in the syntax, except where required
> to support special cases in the SQL standard.
>
> But as a documentation comment submitted recently points out, "date"
> *is* a reserved word in the SQL spec: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/interactive/sql-keywords-appendix.html
> , just not in PostgreSQL. That makes using it as a column name in
> an example an odd choice for a tutorial. The example is using the
> ambiguity to point out where the line between what is and isn't
> legal is at, and maybe that's a feature instead of a bug.
>
> There are a few approaches that could improve on this:
>
> -Keep all of that, but expand the description to link to "SQL Key
> Words"--right now "SQL standard" doesn't go to that section--and say
> this might be a reserved word in other SQL implementations. This is
> the smallest useful improvement.
>
> -Change the name of the column and remove the two related
> descriptions. This will lose the lesson about where the parser's
> line is at.
>
> -Do both: move this example of parser trivia somewhere else, but
> remove it from the tutorial material by using a non-reserved column
> name there.
I reviewed this report and I can't see adding details to a tutorial
about the fact that other databases might use "date" as a reserved word.
I also can't see that renaming the field really add much.
--
Bruce Momjian <[email protected]> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com
+ Everyone has their own god. +
--
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http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-docs
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