Re: csv format for psql

Hello Isaac,

>> Personnaly I do not have any problem with CSV defaulting to '|' separator,
>> given that anyway people often use anything but a comma for the purpose,
>> including '|'.
>>
>> However Pavel wants to block the patch on this point. Too bad.
>
> OK, mostly trying to avoid commenting because I doubt I have much to
> add. But. If I ask for CSV and don't specify any overrides, I expect to
> get "C"omma separated values, not some other character. More
> specifically, if I say --csv I expect to get files that are identical
> with what I would get if I used COPY ... CSV.

My summary was incomplete. The --csv option implementation by Daniel
already does that.

The issue Pavel is complaining about is that in interactive mode "\pset
format csv" does not do the same: it triggers the csv-rule string-escaping
mechanism, but does not reset the "fieldsep" variable (eh, it sets the
"format" variable) so the default separator under this interactive use is
"|" if the "fieldsep" variable is shared.

I have suggested a "\csv" interactive command to set both as a convenient
shorthand for "\pset format csv & \pset fieldsep ','", similarly to --csv,
but Pavel still wants "\pset format csv" to trigger the full csv output.

A consequence I forgot about adding "fieldsep_csv", is that it probably
has to duplicate the "_zero" ugly hack to be consistent with existing
"*sep" variables, or else be inconsistent. Sigh.

--
Fabien.