Re: csv format for psql

2018-01-31 13:58 GMT+01:00 Daniel Verite <daniel(at)manitou-mail(dot)org>:

> Pavel Stehule wrote:
>
> > This format is too important, so some special short or long option can be
> > practical (it will be printed in help)
> >
> > some like --csv
>
> I guess -C/--csv could be used, like there already is -H/--html.
>

I prefer just long option only. Maybe in future we can use short "C" for
something else better. There is only few free short commands.

Regards

Pavel

>
> > I found one issue - PostgreSQL default field separator is "|". Maybe good
> > time to use more common "," ?
> >
> > Or when field separator was not explicitly defined, then use "," for CSV,
> > and "|" for other. Although it can be little bit messy
>
> Currently there's a strong analogy between the unaligned
> mode and csv mode. In particular they use the existing pset
> variables fieldsep, fieldsep_zero, recordsep, recordsep_zero
> in the same way. If we want to make csv special with regard
> to the delimiters, that complicates the user interface
> For instance if fieldsep was changed automatically by
> \pset format csv, it's not obvious if/when we should switch it
> back to its previous state, and how the fieldsep switch done
> automatically would mix or conflict with other \pset
> commands issued by the user.
> Or we need to duplicate these variables. Or duplicate
> only fieldsep, having a fieldsep_csv, leaving out the
> other variables and not being as close to the unaligned
> mode.
> These options don't appeal to me much compared
> to the simplicity of the current patch.
>
> Also, although the comma is the separator defined by the
> RFC4180 and the default for COPY CSV, people also use the
> semicolon extensively (because it's what Excel does I guess),
> which somehow mitigates the importance of comma as the
> default value.
>
>
> Best regards,
> --
> Daniel Vérité
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> Twitter: @DanielVerite
>