Re: Add \pset options for boolean value display

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: "David G(dot) Johnston" <david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com>
Cc: PostgreSQL Hackers <pgsql-hackers(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: Add \pset options for boolean value display
Date: 2025-06-24 22:30:58
Message-ID: 1174075.1750804258@sss.pgh.pa.us
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"David G. Johnston" <david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> On Thu, Mar 20, 2025 at 8:24 PM David G. Johnston <
> david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
>> It's \pset null for boolean values

> v1, Ready aside from bike-shedding the name.

Do we really want this? It's the sort of thing that has a strong
potential to break anything that reads psql output --- and I'd
urge you to think that human consumers of psql output may well
be the minority. There's an awful lot of scripts out there.

I concede that \pset null hasn't had a huge amount of pushback,
but that doesn't mean that making boolean output unpredictable
will be cost-free. And the costs won't be paid by you (or me),
but by people who didn't ask for it.

regards, tom lane

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