Re: proposal: psql concise mode

On Mon, Nov 07, 2011 at 11:01:39PM -0500, Josh Kupershmidt wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 10:04 PM, Robert Haas <robertmhaas(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
>
> >  I can also see myself turning it on and then going
> > - oh, wait, is that column not there, or did it just disappear because
> > I'm in concise mode?
>
> Yeah, that would be a bit of a nuisance in some cases.

Well, that specific problem could be fixed with some format signalling,
such as changing the vertical divider, or perhaps leaving it doubled:

Given your test case:

test=# \d+ foo
Table "public.foo"
Column | Type | Modifiers | Storage | Stats target | Description
--------+---------+-----------+---------+--------------+-------------
a | integer | | plain | |
b | integer | | plain | |
Has OIDs: no

Concise output might look like (bikeshed argument: "splat" indicates
columns "squashed" out):

test=# \d+ foo
Table "public.foo"
Column | Type # Storage #
--------+---------+---------+
a | integer # plain #
b | integer # plain #
Has OIDs: no

or:

Column | Type || Storage |
--------+---------++---------+
a | integer || plain |
b | integer || plain |

or even:

Column | Type || Storage ||
--------+---------++---------++
a | integer || plain ||
b | integer || plain ||

Ross
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