Re: [HACKERS] RFC - change of behaviour of pg_get_userbyid & pg_get_viewdef?

Philip Warner <pjw(at)rhyme(dot)com(dot)au> writes:
> pg_get_viewdef

> returns 'Not a view' when passed a non-existant or non-view table
> it also signals errors when the underlying metadata can not be found.

> The proposal is to return NULL in the above cases - in the final case,
> probably also generate a NOTICE.

I don't believe it's practical to trap errors and return a NULL for
broken views. Moreover, I do not think it's a good idea to respond
to client errors (invalid view name) the same as database problems
(broken views). So, I agree with the part of the proposal that says
to return NULL instead of 'Not a view' when there is no view by the
given name, but I do not agree with trying to suppress errors due to
metadata problems.

regards, tom lane