[Minor] Duplicated word in "Creating a Database" tutorial
The following documentation comment has been logged on the website:
Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/tutorial-createdb.html
Description:
In https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/tutorial-createdb.html, in a
footnote says (note the starred ***that***):
"[1] As an explanation for why this works: PostgreSQL user names are
separate from operating system user accounts. When you connect to a
database, you can choose what PostgreSQL user name to connect as; if you
don't, it will default to the same name as your current operating system
account. As it happens, there will always be a PostgreSQL user account that
has the same name as the operating system user that started the server, and
it also happens that ***that*** user always has permission to create
databases. Instead of logging in as that user you can also specify the -U
option everywhere to select a PostgreSQL user name to connect as."
"that" is duplicated and should be removed.
Thanks!
On 24 Sep 2026, at 21:58, PG Doc comments form <noreply@postgresql.org> wrote:
"that" is duplicated and should be removed.
It seems like a correct sentence to me, removing as per your suggestion would
AFAICT make it grammatically incorrect.
--
Daniel Gustafsson
On Friday, September 25, 2026, Daniel Gustafsson <daniel@yesql.se> wrote:
On 24 Sep 2026, at 21:58, PG Doc comments form <noreply@postgresql.org>
wrote:
"that" is duplicated and should be removed.
It seems like a correct sentence to me, removing as per your suggestion
would
AFAICT make it grammatically incorrect.
Probably, but wouldn’t saying “this user” instead of “that user” be equally
correct without making the word “that” serve two roles in the paragraph and
produce this annoying double-that construction?
David J.
"David G. Johnston" <david.g.johnston@gmail.com> writes:
On Friday, September 25, 2026, Daniel Gustafsson <daniel@yesql.se> wrote:
It seems like a correct sentence to me, removing as per your suggestion
would
AFAICT make it grammatically incorrect.
Probably, but wouldn’t saying “this user” instead of “that user” be equally
correct without making the word “that” serve two roles in the paragraph and
produce this annoying double-that construction?
It's perfectly good English as-is, and offhand I don't think using
"this" would be an improvement. It's been a long time since high
school English, but I think that "that" is actually more correct;
in context I'd take "this user" to mean your own operating-system
user ID, which was mentioned first. Note that the next sentence also
uses "that user" to refer to the same database user.
regards, tom lane
On Fri, Sep 25, 2026 at 11:47 AM Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
"David G. Johnston" <david.g.johnston@gmail.com> writes:
On Friday, September 25, 2026, Daniel Gustafsson <daniel@yesql.se>
wrote:
It seems like a correct sentence to me, removing as per your suggestion
would
AFAICT make it grammatically incorrect.Probably, but wouldn’t saying “this user” instead of “that user” be
equally
correct without making the word “that” serve two roles in the paragraph
and
produce this annoying double-that construction?
It's perfectly good English as-is, and offhand I don't think using
"this" would be an improvement. It's been a long time since high
school English, but I think that "that" is actually more correct;
in context I'd take "this user" to mean your own operating-system
user ID, which was mentioned first. Note that the next sentence also
uses "that user" to refer to the same database user.regards, tom lane
After reading the discussion, it now makes sense the sentence, thanks for
the clarification