Re: last comma inside "CREATE TABLE ()" statements

On Sun, Apr 22, 2001 at 07:44:46PM +0100, some SMTP stream spewed forth:
> Tom Lane wrote:
> >Louis-David Mitterrand <vindex(at)apartia(dot)ch> writes:
> >> Is it against the SQL standard to accept a trailing comma in a table
> >> declaration?
> >
> >Yes ...
> >
> >> CREATE TABLE "currency" (
> >> currency_id varchar(3),
> >> rate float, <-------------------- BOOM! parse error
> >> );
> >
> >> As in perl, it would make life easier to simply ignore/accept a trailing
> >> comma on table declarations.
> >
> >... however, this seems like a reasonable idea that would not introduce
> >any major problems. I have no objections, if someone wants to submit
> >a grammar patch.

I can think of no place where this would be even remotely useful.
Is it really that difficult to remove a comma?
If it works now for *all* users of PostgreSQL, why should we change it?

gh

>
> I suppose it isn't a major problem, but enforcing strict grammar
> helps to show up inadvertent errors. Suppose I have a set of schema
> building files for a whole system; the way I do things, there may be fifty
> or more files, one per table. If one of these gets corrupted in editing
> (perhaps a line gets deleted by mistake) it would be nice to know about it
> through a parser error. Of course, an error may be such that the parser
> won't detect it, but why remove protection by gratuitously departing from
> the standard?
>
> --
> Oliver Elphick Oliver(dot)Elphick(at)lfix(dot)co(dot)uk
> Isle of Wight http://www.lfix.co.uk/oliver
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