From: | Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> |
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To: | Joe Conway <mail(at)joeconway(dot)com> |
Cc: | Kris Jurka <books(at)ejurka(dot)com>, Alex <alex(at)meerkatsoft(dot)com>, "Lada 'Ray' Lostak" <ray(at)unreal64(dot)net>, pgsql-patches(at)postgresql(dot)org |
Subject: | Re: pg_generate_sequence and info_schema patch (Was: SELECT Question) |
Date: | 2004-02-01 05:00:26 |
Message-ID: | 12141.1075611626@sss.pgh.pa.us |
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Lists: | pgsql-general pgsql-patches |
Joe Conway <mail(at)joeconway(dot)com> writes:
> regression=# select * from pg_generate_sequence(8, 4);
> ERROR: finish is less than start
Hm, would it be better just to return an empty set? Certainly I'd
expect pg_generate_sequence(1,0) to return an empty set with no error.
> regression=# select * from pg_generate_sequence(3,8000000000);
> ERROR: range of start to finish is too large
> HINT: start to finish range must be less than 4294967295
Is there a good reason for that restriction? (I've never thought it was
good design for the SRF API to assume that the number of iterations
could be determined in advance, anyway.)
> I'm not sure if it would be a good thing, or too confusing, to document
> pg_generate_sequence() on the "Sequence Manipulation Functions" page in
> the docs. Any opinions on that?
It is *not* a sequence function in the sense used on that page. I'm not
quite sure where to put it, but don't give people the impression that it
is related to sequence objects.
I was going to say "pg_generate_sequence" is a fine name, but after
thinking about the lack of relation to sequence objects I think we ought
not use "sequence" in the name. How about "pg_generate_series" or
"pg_generate_set"? Actually I think you could leave off the pg_ prefix
and just make it generate_series or generate_set. It's not
Postgres-specific in the same way that, say. pg_get_indexdef is.
Maybe the best documentation answer is to create a new subsection in the
Functions chapter. This may be our first standard set-returning
function but I bet it will not be the last, so the shortness of the
subsection doesn't bother me.
regards, tom lane
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