Subject: Field Separator not working?
From: Mario Splivalo <mario.splivalo@mobart.hr>
Reply-To: mario.splivalo@mobart.hr
To: PostgresSQL list <pgsql-sql@postgresql.org>
Content-Type: text/plain
Organization: Mob-Art
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 12:19:12 +0200
Message-Id: <1129717152.3186.5.camel@ekim>
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I'm having troubles setting the field separator. I tried this on pg7.4,
8.0 and 8.1beta, and I always get the same results.

So, from within psql i do:
pulitzer2=# select * from pg_user;
  usename  | usesysid | usecreatedb | usesuper | usecatupd |  passwd  |
valuntil | useconfig
-----------+----------+-------------+----------+-----------+----------+----------+-----------
 mario     |        1 | t           | t        | t         | ******** |
|
 postgres  |      100 | t           | t        | t         | ******** |
|
 pulitzer2 |      102 | f           | f        | f         | ******** |
infinity |
 101       |      101 | f           | f        | f         | ******** |
infinity |
(4 rows)

pulitzer2=# \t
Showing only tuples.
pulitzer2=# \f#
Field separator is "#".
pulitzer2=# select * from pg_user;
 mario     |        1 | t           | t        | t         | ******** |
|
 postgres  |      100 | t           | t        | t         | ******** |
|
 pulitzer2 |      102 | f           | f        | f         | ******** |
infinity |
 101       |      101 | f           | f        | f         | ******** |
infinity |

pulitzer2=#


psql does tell me that I changed the field separator to "#", but it
still uses "|" as separator. I'm parsing the script from bash, using
psql, and setting the field separator options on the command line, but I
get similair results, the field separator is always "|", so I need to
awk-it with -F, but sometimes I have problems because data in my tables
often contain "|" charachter.

I've been looking trough the psql source code, but just like that, it's
too big hassle for me now :)

Am I doing something wrong?

	Mike
-- 
Mario Splivalo
Mob-Art
mario.splivalo@mobart.hr

"I can do it quick, I can do it cheap, I can do it well. Pick any two."