Re: Named Operators

On Thu, Jan 12, 2023 at 3:59 AM Gurjeet Singh <gurjeet(at)singh(dot)im> wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 12, 2023 at 1:49 AM Matthias van de Meent
> <boekewurm+postgres(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
>
> > I'm -1 on the chosen syntax; :name: shadows common variable
> > substitution patterns including those of psql.
>
> I'll consider using one of the other special characters. Do you have
> any suggestions?
>
>
The R language uses %...% to denote custom operators.

That would be a bit annoying for dynamic SQL using format though...

Do we have to choose? There are 15 allowed characters for operator names
presently (aside from + and -), could we define the rule that an operator
name can contain any sequence of alphabetic+underscore+space? characters so
long as the first and last symbol of the operator name is one of those 15
characters?

Another appealing option would be the non-matching but complementary pair
<...> (I'd consider removing these from the 15 choices in we go that route)

SELECT 1 <add> 2;

I would probably avoid requiring back-ticks given their usage as identifier
quoting in other systems - probably remove it from the 15 choices if we go
that route.

David J.