Re: "AS" by the syntax of table reference.(8.4 proposal)

"Tom Lane" <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> writes:

> Gregory Stark <stark(at)enterprisedb(dot)com> writes:
>> But yeah, c_expr isn't enough. We really need {a,b}_expr sans postfix
>> expressions.
>
> How's that going to help? As long as postfix operators exist at all,
>
> SELECT a + b, ...
>
> is going to be ambiguous, and no amount of grammar magic changes that.
> We could force the parser into using one interpretation or the other,
> but it would still be wrong for some folks.

Sure, just like a + + b is ambiguous. We define an arbitrary choice and tell
people to put parentheses if they want the other. It's not too hard to write

SELECT (a +) b, ...

if you want an alias. Besides, nobody uses postfix expressions anyways. It
would be a pain if it worked the other way and you had to write (a + b) all
the time.

--
Gregory Stark
EnterpriseDB http://www.enterprisedb.com
Get trained by Bruce Momjian - ask me about EnterpriseDB's PostgreSQL training!