Subject: Todo item: Include the symbolic SQLSTATE name in verbose error reports

From: Josh Kupershmidt <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2026 09:44:15 -0400

Hi,

Attached is a patch implementing an old feature request on the wiki's Todo:

"Include the symbolic SQLSTATE name in verbose error reports"

The output should only be different in verbose mode, i.e. if you:

  \set VERBOSITY verbose

The old output in verbose mode would look like:

  # SELECT * FROM nonexistent_table;
  ERROR:  42P01: relation "nonexistent_table" does not exist
  LINE 1: SELECT * FROM nonexistent_table;

  LOCATION:  parserOpenTable, parse_relation.c:1461

The new output looks like:

  # select * FROM nonexistent;
  ERROR:  42P01 (ERRCODE_UNDEFINED_TABLE): relation "nonexistent" does not
exist
  LINE 1: select * FROM nonexistent;
                      ^
  LOCATION:  parserOpenTable, parse_relation.c:1461

so that we tell the user clearly what "42P01" means, in this example.

Cheers,
Josh

---

From: Tom Lane <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 25 May 2026 14:58:11 -0400

> "Include the symbolic SQLSTATE name in verbose error reports"

I kind of doubt that this is actually useful (which presumably is
the reason the TODO item has languished uncompleted for so long).

The first problem is that the SQL spec's list of error codes isn't
very granular, so that there are many cases where different errors
with different messages have been mapped to the same SQLSTATE.
You are way better off to read the message text than to believe
that the SQLSTATE is a useful summary.

The second problem is that the proposed implementation relies on
libpq to know the server's list of SQLSTATEs, with obvious risks
for cross-version skew.

I also wonder if this wouldn't break some applications that are
expecting specific output from psql, or for that matter from
anything else relying on libpq's error message formatting.
No doubt such apps could be fixed, but the cost/benefit ratio
just doesn't seem all that attractive.

			regards, tom lane