Re: GET DIAGNOSTICS (was Re: Open 7.1 items)

At 18:49 18/02/01 -0500, Tom Lane wrote:
>Peter Eisentraut <peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net> writes:
>> :
>> : GET DIAGNOSTICS SELECT RESULT INTO <int4_variable>;
>
>> May I suggest that this is the wrong syntax? It should be
>
>Hmm, that's definitely what SQL99 uses for the syntax. I wonder where
>Jan got the SELECT INTO syntax --- did he borrow it from Oracle?
>Anyone have an Oracle manual to check?

Sadly, we made it up. I needed to get the SPI variables and we came up with
this. I sent the patches for PROCESSED and RESULT in 1999 (I think) - pre
V6.5, anyway. I had no idea that they had been applied until people started
asking questions about them.

>I'd be more inclined to follow the spec than Oracle, anyway.

I agree.

However, there is a case for keeping the 'select' version as well; you have
already raised the need to handle the 'OID' case, and I can imagine there
might be a few other PG-specific things we might want in the future -
keeping the two separate may be a good option:

We *do* need to support ROW_COUNT, but allowing

GET DIAGNOSTICS Select ROW_COUNT, SQLCODE, OID Into :a,:b:,:c;

is a lot friendlier than the standard:

GET DIAGNOSTICS :a = ROW_COUNT;
GET DIAGNOSTICS EXCEPTION 1 :b = SQLCODE;
GET DIAGNOSTICS :c = OID;

(not that we even support SQLCODE at this stage).

>if we're going to change it, we'd better do so before 7.1 release,
>else we'll have a backwards-compatibility problem.

*If* you accept the desirability of 'select', then this is not true.

P.S. Is Jan around? He's been very quiet recently...

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