I'm designing a fairly involved database system. As part fo the process, I use the \i [FILE] command a great deal. I set up fairly involved queries, sometimes simply for the purpose of shortening column names so the output is reasonable. For example:
SELECT longname AS abbr,othername as "V" FROM table WHERE how; ...a bunch of these can result in a single-line output on the console, which is a lot easier to deal with than a dump of the actual field names which wraps around and makes you scroll back and forth trying to line up the names with the values. Now, in my case, I'm dealing with specific orders. So the WHERE clause might be: ...WHERE zorder=104788; Which works fine. But, I have to edit the file every time I'm working with a different order, which is repetative and annoying, something computers are supposed to save us from. :) However, you can't leave it out; \i [FILE] expects the query to be complete, ready to go to the server. As far as I can tell. So - how about a command to read a file into the input lines withOUT sending it yet, so that its ready to type the last part, such as: 104788; In other words, the file would end here: ...WHERE zorder=104788; ^ | | ...then I could just type the number, hit enter, and off it would go. Or even if it has to be complete, right now, you can use \i [FILE] and it runs, but you can't edit the thing with the line review editing tools... it shows the \i [FILE] command, not what the command read. That would work too, even if it caused a dummy read the first time you used it. Input, anyone? --Ben ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 5: Have you checked our extensive FAQ? http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faqs/FAQ.html