From: "Hiroshi Inoue" <Inoue@tpf.co.jp>
To: "Byron Nikolaidis" <byron.nikolaidis@home.com>
Cc: <pgsql-interfaces@postgreSQL.org>
Subject: RE: [INTERFACES] Functions vs. Columns?????
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 12:09:17 +0900
Message-ID: <001001bf782b$35c6a180$2801007e@tpf.co.jp>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Importance: Normal
In-Reply-To: <38AA04D4.4FDA646C@home.com>

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pgsql-interfaces@postgreSQL.org
> [mailto:owner-pgsql-interfaces@postgreSQL.org]On Behalf Of Byron
> Nikolaidis
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I have a question as to how postgres handles some built-in functions,
> for example:
> 
> Works                        Doesn't Work
> ------                       ------------
> select now();                select now;
> select current_date;         select current_date();
> 
> It seems that there should be some consistency here in the use of
> parenthesis.  I don't really know how these things are handled on the
> backend, but it seems that parenthesis are the more correct way, or at
> least both should be allowed.
> 
> Any thoughts?
>

Parenthesis are needed in order to call functions in PostgreSQL.
current_date isn't a built-in function of PostgreSQL.
It's an SQL standard function and it's a special work of PostgreSQL
parser to change current_date to call another built-in function.
 
Regards.

Hiroshi Inoue
Inoue@tpf.co.jp