Re: psql: add \pset true/false

On Thu, Dec 3, 2015 at 3:10 AM, Jim Nasby <Jim(dot)Nasby(at)bluetreble(dot)com> wrote:
> On 11/15/15 7:37 PM, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
>>
>> On 11/15/15 3:20 PM, Jim Nasby wrote:
>>>
>>> As to the argument about displaying a check or an X, why should that
>>> capability only exist for boolean types? For example, why not allow psql
>>> to convert a numeric value into a bar of varying sizes? I've frequently
>>> emulated that with something like SELECT repeat( '*', blah * 30 /
>>> max_of_blah ). I'm sure there's other examples people could think of.
>>
>>
>> Well, why not? The question there is only how many marginal features
>> you want to stuff into psql, not whether it's the right place to stuff
>> them.
>
>
> I was more thinking it would be nice to be able to temporarily
> over-ride/wrap what an output function is doing. AFAIK that would allow this
> to work everywhere (row(), copy, etc). I don't know of any remotely
> practical way to do that, though.

You can basically do that with a custom data type and at worse a
custom GUC, no? It does not seem worth bothering the backend with an
extra layer to manage the output of a data type.
--
Michael