Feature Request: inline comments

CaT <cat@zip.com.au> writes:

It is a pretty obvious suggestion I bet was made many, many times
before, but it would be very useful if you could create comments while
creating the objects themselves, like

CREATE TABLE FOO (
ID INTEGER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY COMMENT 'The ID',
VALUE VARCHAR(10) COMMENT 'The value',
) COMMENT 'The table';

This seems like a fairly bad idea to me, because it converts your table
definitions into proprietary syntax. Heaven help you trying to load the
above into any other database. With a separate COMMENT ON command, at
least you have a fighting chance of ignoring the errors and pressing on.

Perhaps this is a small enough add to make it into 8.3?

Feature freeze was six months ago, and no this wouldn't be a "small
add" even if it was the best idea since sliced bread.

regards, tom lane

On Wed, Nov 07, 2007 at 06:32:53PM -0500, Tom Lane wrote:

CaT <cat@zip.com.au> writes:

It is a pretty obvious suggestion I bet was made many, many times
before, but it would be very useful if you could create comments while
creating the objects themselves, like

CREATE TABLE FOO (
ID INTEGER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY COMMENT 'The ID',
VALUE VARCHAR(10) COMMENT 'The value',
) COMMENT 'The table';

This seems like a fairly bad idea to me, because it converts your table
definitions into proprietary syntax. Heaven help you trying to load the
above into any other database. With a separate COMMENT ON command, at
least you have a fighting chance of ignoring the errors and pressing on.

Well, in a dump of the DB, you could have them as COMMENT ON. Otherwise
I /think/ this should do it in vim at least:

:%s/ COMMENT '\([^']*''\)*[^']*'//

It's not a perfect regex (though I think it could be made to hand E''
escaping) but it'll do for most comments.

Perhaps this is a small enough add to make it into 8.3?

Feature freeze was six months ago, and no this wouldn't be a "small
add" even if it was the best idea since sliced bread.

Fair cop.

--
"To the extent that we overreact, we proffer the terrorists the
greatest tribute."
- High Court Judge Michael Kirby

CaT wrote:

On Wed, Nov 07, 2007 at 06:32:53PM -0500, Tom Lane wrote:

CaT <cat@zip.com.au> writes:

It is a pretty obvious suggestion I bet was made many, many times
before, but it would be very useful if you could create comments while
creating the objects themselves, like

CREATE TABLE FOO (
ID INTEGER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY COMMENT 'The ID',
VALUE VARCHAR(10) COMMENT 'The value',
) COMMENT 'The table';

This seems like a fairly bad idea to me, because it converts your table
definitions into proprietary syntax. Heaven help you trying to load the
above into any other database. With a separate COMMENT ON command, at
least you have a fighting chance of ignoring the errors and pressing on.

Well, in a dump of the DB, you could have them as COMMENT ON. Otherwise
I /think/ this should do it in vim at least:

:%s/ COMMENT '\([^']*''\)*[^']*'//

It's not a perfect regex (though I think it could be made to hand E''
escaping) but it'll do for most comments.

No it won't. There's dollar quoting to think of, and multiline comments.
It all looks like clutter to me anyway.

cheers

andrew

Feature freeze was six months ago, and no this wouldn't be a
"small add" even if it was the best idea since sliced bread.

+1