Re: [patch] Proposal for \rotate in psql

Joe Conway wrote:

> but if you don't want to conflict with the name
> crosstab, perhaps "pivot" would be better?

Initially I had chosen \pivot without much thought about it,
but the objection was raised that a PIVOT/UNPIVOT SQL feature
would likely exist in core in a next release independantly from psql.

If things unfold as envisioned, we would end up in the future with:
- crosstab() from tablefunc's contrib module.
- SELECT (...) PIVOT [serialization?] (...) in the SQL grammar.
- \rotate or yet another name for the client-side approach.

The reason to avoid both \crosstab or \pivot for the psql feature is
the fear of confusion for the less expert users who don't feel
the clear-cut separation between core and extensions and client
versus server, they mostly know that they're trying to use
a feature named $X. When they search for $X, it's better when
they don't find something else and possibly jump to wrong
conclusions about what it does and how it works.

Or maybe that's worrying about things that will never matter in
reality, that's possible too.

Best regards,
--
Daniel Vérité
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