Re: Named arguments in function calls

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: Greg Stark <gsstark(at)mit(dot)edu>
Cc: Dennis Bjorklund <db(at)zigo(dot)dhs(dot)org>, pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: Named arguments in function calls
Date: 2004-01-26 00:21:08
Message-ID: 29456.1075076468@sss.pgh.pa.us
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Greg Stark <gsstark(at)mit(dot)edu> writes:
> Of course it's ambiguous. Just as f(a,b) is ambiguous in C. It could
> mean call f with two arguments, or it could mean call f with the
> result of the expression "a,b". It's "fixed" by just declaring ","
> special inside function calls. If you want to use the operator in the
> function call you have to use an extra set of parentheses.

This doesn't apply very well to Postgres, though. For us ',' is not a
legal operator name anywhere. We used to have some conflicts between
punctuation and operator names --- at one point, there were actually
standard operators named ';' and ':' if you can believe that. We got
rid of those cases because of the amount of pain they caused, and I'm
not eager to introduce a new one.

regards, tom lane

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