Re: Thoughts on "SELECT * EXCLUDING (...) FROM ..."?

On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 2:54 PM, Robert Haas <robertmhaas(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:

> OTOH, I'm slightly afraid of how much work it would take to implement
> this properly.

I think first, the A_Star node struct will need to be expanded to
include a List of qualified column references to exclude. From there,
the "target_el" rule in gram.y will need to be expanded to support a
syntax like:
'*' EXCLUDING '(' columnref_list ')' { ... }
I also think that the "indirection_el" rule will need to be expanded
to support something similar.

Together, that would let us write both:
SELECT * EXCLUDING(table1.col1, table2.col1) FROM ...
and
SELECT table.* EXCLUDING(col1, col2) FROM ...
or even
SELECT * EXCLUDING(table1.col1), table2.* EXCLUDING(col1) FROM ...

I think changing the "indirection_el" rule might have an impact to
OLD/NEW, but I'm not sure. Is it legal to write OLD.*, and if so,
would you also want to write OLD.* EXCLUDING (...) in those cases? I
think this only applies to RULES or SQL-type trigger functions, but
not pl/pgsql?

Then it looks like touching various functions in src/backend/nodes/*.c
to do the right things with the new exclusion list field in A_Star. I
haven't traced through everything yet, but it looks like if the
various places in src/backend/nodes/*.c are done correctly, then
regurgitating a view definition or whatnot that includes this syntax
will be automatic (i.e., no specific support required for pg_dump)?

Anyways, at first I thought it would be about 8hrs of work just to get
something working. Maybe it's more like 20, but even still, it seems
fairly straightforward.

eric