Re: psql: Allow editing query results with \gedit

po 22. 1. 2024 v 17:34 odesílatel David G. Johnston <
david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com> napsal:

> On Mon, Jan 22, 2024 at 8:06 AM Christoph Berg <myon(at)debian(dot)org> wrote:
>
>> Assuming a SELECT statement reading from a single table, it is quite an
>> effort to transform that statement to an UPDATE statement on that table,
>> perhaps to fix a typo that the user has spotted in the query result.
>>
>>
> Building off the other comments, I'd suggest trying to get rid of the
> intermediate JSOn format and also just focus on a single row at any given
> time.
>
> For an update the first argument to the metacommand could be the unique
> key value present in the previous result. The resultant UPDATE would just
> put that into the where clause and every other column in the result would
> be a SET clause column with the thing being set the current value, ready to
> be edited.
>
> DELETE would be similar but without the need for a SET clause.
>
> INSERT can produce a template INSERT (cols) VALUES ... command with some
> smarts regarding auto incrementing keys and placeholder values.
>
> David J.
>

Can you imagine using it? I like psql, I like term applications, my first
database was FoxPro, but for dataeditation I am almost sure so I don't want
to use psql.

I can imagine enhancing the current \gexec command because it is executed
directly without possibility to edit. I see valuable some special clause
"edit"

like

\gexec_edit or \gexec(edit) or \gexec edit

This is like current gexec but with possibility to edit the result in
editor and with possibility to finish without saving.

Then we can introduce SQL functions UpdateTemplate(cols text[], rowvalue),
InsertTemplate, ...

and then you can write

SELECT UpdateTemplace(ARRAY['a','b','c'], foo) FROM foo WHERE id IN (1,2)
\gexec_with_edit

But still looks strange to me - like we try reintroduce of necessity sed or
awk to SQL and psql

I would have forms like FoxPro, I would have a grid like FoxPro, but not in
psql, and I would not develop it :-)