On Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 7:25 PM, David E. Wheeler <da...@kineticode.com> wrote: > On Nov 15, 2009, at 11:21 AM, Greg Stark wrote: > > > $foo should be killed off as a valid identifier, IMNSHO. > > But failing that, some other sigil would be most welcome.
I don't think SQL is the height of language design either. But trying to turn it into another language piece by piece is not gong to make it any nicer. A sigil here doesn't accomplish anything. The identifiers in question are *just* like other identifiers. They can be used in expressions just like other columns, they have various types, they have the same syntax as other columns, the sigil doesn't mean anything. I think what may be making this tempting is that they look vaguely like ODBC/JDBC/DBI placeholders like :foo. However they're very very different. In those cases the sigil is marking the sigil outside the SQL syntax. They will be replaced textually without parsing the SQL at all. It's actually very confusing having $foo indicate something within SQL since it makes it look like it's some external thing from another layer like the placeholders. -- greg -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
