Re: user input during runtime

David Fetter wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 16, 2007 at 08:23:48PM -0500, Bruce Momjian wrote:
>> Ashish Karalkar wrote:
>>> Hello All,
>>> I want to prompt user to input some value and do some action on that value in runtime of a sql script.
>>> Is there any psql command to do this ??
>>> I can use \echo do display massage
>>> but to take input what is the command?
>>> Thanks in advance
>> You can do:
>>
>> \echo -n 'Enter value: '
>> \set x `read && echo $REPLY`
>
> Neat trick! Is there one that works on all our supported platforms?
> I'm guessing Win32 will just get confused about backticks.

Win32 will deal with the backticks Ok, but not the read && echo part.
You can set it to the output of a variable, for example
\set x `echo foo`

but I haven't been able to trick it into actually reading something. One
would think something like:
\set x `set /p Z= && echo %Z%`
would work, but it doesn't. One reason for this is that %Z% is actually
resolved at parsing time. it's a pain in CMD language, but that's how it
works. :-(

//Magnus