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From: Matthew Mellon <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: INSERT ... SELECT nonpositional syntax
Date: Mon, 20 May 2024 17:56:47 -0400
Message-ID: <CADNMQCJb=ivwfjeVV=2V8eG24MJLxWC_stp3hW+JTJ8=zwMWJg@mail.gmail.com> (raw)

I'm a PostgreSQL novice but a very, very experienced DBA from the SAP SQL
Anywhere context (formerly Sybase / iAnywhere). Most of my code has been in
the Watcom SQL dialect in the past.

SAP's products have a nice feature not found in the ANSI standards for the
INSERT ... SELECT syntax: WITH AUTO NAME. Assume you have a table that
looks something like this:


In PostgreSQL, you can:

INSERT INTO TableX
(
  i,
  j,
  k
)
SELECT a,
  b,
  c
FROM TableY; -- or whatever SELECT expression you want returning possibly
many rows

This is nice, but it's so much nicer to have the destination columns
adjacent to your source values:

INSERT INTO TableX
WITH AUTO NAME
SELECT a i,
  b j,
  c k
FROM TableY;

I'm not complaining here, but just wondering if there is a way that the
syntax can be extended at this level using an extension, or if there is a
fighting chance of extending the syntax in the base product?

Thanks,

Matthew Mellon

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