Re: pg_table_size errors "invalid name syntax" for table names containing spaces

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: Michel Helms <michel(at)togetherdb(dot)com>, "pgsql-bugs(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org" <pgsql-bugs(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: pg_table_size errors "invalid name syntax" for table names containing spaces
Date: 2021-06-10 13:43:37
Message-ID: 1558160.1623332617@sss.pgh.pa.us
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"David G. Johnston" <david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> On Thursday, June 10, 2021, Michel Helms <michel(at)togetherdb(dot)com> wrote:
>> CREATE TABLE "wei rd" (id SERIAL);
>> SELECT pg_table_size('wei rd');

> You still have to double-quote the name even if its being passed around in
> a string literal.

Yeah. The reason for this is that you're also allowed to write qualified
table names:

SELECT pg_table_size('myschema.mytable');

That would seem to introduce an ambiguity: is the dot a schema separator,
or just an ordinary character (in a table name that was presumably written
with double quotes originally)? We resolve this by saying that the
parsing rules for regclass_in are the same as they are in SQL text,
so you have to double-quote anything that is not a plain identifier
or needs to be protected against case-folding.

Hence, you should write

SELECT pg_table_size('"wei rd"');

regards, tom lane

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