Re: SQL feature requests

On 8/23/07, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
> "Ben Tilly" <btilly(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> > ... But then I need this (possibly
> > empty) list to have a valid group by statement at the end. In Oracle
> > I used to just write it like this:
>
> > SELECT ...
> > GROUP BY $possible_term_1
> > $possible_term_2
> > $possible_term_3
> > 'end of possible groupings'
>
> FWIW, that will work if you write it as
>
> 'end of possible groupings'::text

Ah, that is the solution that I'll move to.

> I'm disinclined to accept it as-is because (a) it's highly likely to be
> a mistake, and (b) there's no principled way to assign a datatype to the
> expression, if we are to interpret it as an expression.
>
> Basically anything but an unadorned constant will work there.

As long as that behaviour is guaranteed, I'm OK on this one.

Ben