Re: Join troubles between pg_index and pg_indexes with capitalization in pg_indexes.tablename

Bob Branch <bbranch(at)nabancard(dot)com> writes:
> I've got a script in which I'm attempting to list all indexes that
> aren't the PK for a given table. The query I'm using for this is:

> SELECT i.indexname, i.indexdef FROM pg_indexes i
> INNER JOIN pg_index p ON p.indrelid = i.tablename::regclass::oid
> WHERE i.schemaname = 'public'
> AND i.tablename = 'tablename_goes_here'
> AND p.indisprimary = false

> This works for tables with what I'm sure we'd all consider to be
> "proper" naming (all lower-case, underscores between words), but our
> database unfortunately has vast numbers of tables that use camel case
> and spaces in the table names (eg- "Status", "Sales Rep", etc.).

Not to mention that it's utterly unsafe if you have equal table names in
different schemas. You should really not be using pg_indexes in this
query, as it is a view meant for human consumption, not something
helpful for basing further catalog joins on. Try looking directly at
pg_class and pg_index. In particular, if all you want is non-PK
indexes, you could just do something like

select indexrelid::regclass from pg_index where not indisprimary;

If you need an explicit join to pg_class (perhaps because you have more
filter conditions than just "is it primary"), you should be joining
pg_class.oid to indexrelid or indrelid, rather than making something up
with table names. The names are not suitable as join keys.

regards, tom lane