Subject: Re: Use or not record count on examples

From: "David G. Johnston" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2025 16:54:49 -0700

On Sat, Nov 23, 2024 at 5:30 AM Marcos Pegoraro <[email-masked]> wrote:

> There is no rule of when the number of records at the end of the lists
> should be shown or not
> Sometimes we show that line "(4 rows)", but sometimes not.
> Should we have a standard for it ?
>

I'm inclined toward no.

If we do, we probably want to separate out the rules for the tutorial
versus those for the reference sections.

I'm fine with devising guidelines on what is considered added
readability versus detracts from the same, but I don't think making a
global pass at removing them is warranted nor would I want to go back and
add them in where they might be warranted.  Let the author and reviewers
come to agreement on appropriateness and just accept past decisions.

The later example of pg_ls_dir('.') has more issues than just the row count
if you consider the row count to be an issue.

The settings example has the same recency concern.  Maybe examples just
shouldn't use non-deterministic queries in general.  The few that need to
can omit a row count and point out the volatile nature of the result being
saved into the static documentation.

David J.