Re: add label to enum syntax

From: Robert Haas <robertmhaas(at)gmail(dot)com>
To: Andrew Dunstan <andrew(at)dunslane(dot)net>
Cc: Dean Rasheed <dean(dot)a(dot)rasheed(at)gmail(dot)com>, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>, Pavel Stehule <pavel(dot)stehule(at)gmail(dot)com>, "David E(dot) Wheeler" <david(at)kineticode(dot)com>, PostgreSQL-development <pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: add label to enum syntax
Date: 2010-10-26 14:15:28
Message-ID: AANLkTin5i2ektVn1BjOV84agNJ9PSOmfxQsjR0ENg98Z@mail.gmail.com
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On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 9:54 AM, Andrew Dunstan <andrew(at)dunslane(dot)net> wrote:
>
>
> On 10/26/2010 03:02 AM, Dean Rasheed wrote:
>>
>> In mathematics (and I think also computer science), the term
>> conventionally used the refer to the things in an enumeration is
>> "element", so how about ADD ELEMENT?
>
> Unlike the other suggestions, ELEMENT is not currently a keyword. That
> doesn't rule it out entirely, but it's a factor worth consideration.
>
>> The label is just one of the ways of identifying the element, and the
>> value is element's OID. The thing you're adding is an element, with
>> both a label and a value.
>>
>
> No, I think that's the wrong way of thinking about it entirely. The label
> *is* the value and the OID is simply an implementation detail, which for the
> most part we keep completely hidden from the user. We could have implemented
> enums in ways that did not involve OIDs at all, with identical semantics.
>
> Notwithstanding the above, I don't think ELEMENT would be a very bad choice.

I still think we should just go for LABEL and be done with it. But
y'all can ignore me if you want...

--
Robert Haas
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company

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