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Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2025 16:11:42 +0200
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Subject: Re: generated constraint name
To: "David G. Johnston" <david.g.johnston@gmail.com>,
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 "pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" <pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org>
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From: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
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On 07.04.25 15:34, David G. Johnston wrote:
> On Sunday, April 6, 2025, PG Doc comments form <noreply@postgresql.org 
> <mailto:noreply@postgresql.org>> wrote:
> 
>     The following documentation comment has been logged on the website:
> 
>     Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/17/ddl-alter.html <https://
>     www.postgresql.org/docs/17/ddl-alter.html>
>     Description:
> 
>     url:
>     https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/ddl-alter.html#DDL-ALTER-
>     REMOVING-A-CONSTRAINT <https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/ddl-
>     alter.html#DDL-ALTER-REMOVING-A-CONSTRAINT>
> 
>     (If you are dealing with a generated constraint name like $2, don't
>     forget
>     that you'll need to double-quote it to make it a valid identifier.)
> 
>     If I have a constraint with the name $2, are there other constraints
>     with
>     names $1, $3 ... ?
> 
> 
> I feel like that whole parenthetical should just go away.  The point of 
> the comment is to remind the user of how identifier values work with 
> respect to mandatory double quoting.  The name itself, other than having 
> a $, has no special importance.

I think generated constraint names were generally "$1", "$2", etc. at 
some point, instead of the more readable ones you get today.  But this 
must be ancient.