Re: Make subquery alias optional in FROM clause

On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 8:08 AM, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:

> Bernd Helmle <mailings(at)oopsware(dot)de> writes:
> >> From time to time, especially during migration projects from Oracle to
> > PostgreSQL, i'm faced with people questioning why the alias in the FROM
> > clause for subqueries in PostgreSQL is mandatory. The default answer
> > here is, the SQL standard requires it.
>
> Indeed. When I wrote the comment you're referring to, quite a few years
> ago now, I thought that popular demand might force us to allow omitted
> aliases. But the demand never materialized. At this point it seems
> clear to me that there isn't really good reason to exceed the spec here.
> It just encourages people to write unportable SQL code.
>

​I'll contribute to the popular demand aspect but given that the error is
good and the fix is very simple its not exactly a strong desire.

My code is already unportable since I choose to use "::" for casting - and
I'm sure quite a few other PostgreSQL-specific things - so the portability
aspect to the argument is already thin for me and moreso given other DBMSes
already relax the requirement.

David J.​