Re: UPDATE statement with syntax error doesn't raise a warning?

On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:05:13 +0200, Mirko Pace wrote about [GENERAL]
UPDATE statement with syntax error doesn't raise a warning?:

>I've ran an update statement like this (obviously wrong, I know!):

Not so obvious.

>update my_table
> set boolean_field = true AND
> my_notes = 'something'
>where id in
> (select id from my_table order by random() limit 4000);
>
>in my psql client and I had a "UPDATE 4000" result but, correctly,
>anything was changed in my_table.

I presume you meant "nothing" rather than "anything".

>So... why pg didn't raise a warning about syntax issue?

If we add some redundant parentheses, the SET clause becomes:

SET boolean_field = (true AND my_notes = 'something')

As you can see, this is a valid Boolean expression. There is no syntax
error. It just doesn't mean what you wanted.
--
Regards,

Dave [RLU #314465]
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david(dot)w(dot)noon(at)ntlworld(dot)com (David W Noon)
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