psql Feature request \set query

From: Josh Berkus <josh(at)agliodbs(dot)com>
To: postgres hackers <pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: psql Feature request \set query
Date: 2008-10-22 22:38:21
Message-ID: 200810221538.21464.josh@agliodbs.com
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Hackers,

Just had a feature request from Wheeler, and I don't see why it shouldn't
go on our todo list.

Currently, in psql you can do:

\set myvar 2008-10-23

and you can do

\set myvar `date`

but you can't do

\set myvar "Select now()"

even though you could, bizarrely, do:

\set myvar `psql -c "SELECT now();"`

... provided you were willing to parse out the garbage in the output.

This seems inconsistent, and it seems like the ability to store the results
of a single-row-returning query in a psql variable would be useful for
testing. yes/no?

--
--Josh

Josh Berkus
PostgreSQL
San Francisco

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