pg_table_size errors "invalid name syntax" for table names containing spaces

On Thursday, June 10, 2021, Michel Helms <michel@togetherdb.com> wrote:

CREATE TABLE "wei rd" (id SERIAL);
SELECT pg_table_size('wei rd');

So just creating a table containing spaces, the pg_table_size, also
pg_total_relation_size and maybe other administrative functions fail with
error message "invalid name syntax".

You still have to double-quote the name even if its being passed around in
a string literal.

David J.

"David G. Johnston" <david.g.johnston@gmail.com> writes:

On Thursday, June 10, 2021, Michel Helms <michel@togetherdb.com> wrote:

CREATE TABLE "wei rd" (id SERIAL);
SELECT pg_table_size('wei rd');

You still have to double-quote the name even if its being passed around in
a string literal.

Yeah. The reason for this is that you're also allowed to write qualified
table names:

SELECT pg_table_size('myschema.mytable');

That would seem to introduce an ambiguity: is the dot a schema separator,
or just an ordinary character (in a table name that was presumably written
with double quotes originally)? We resolve this by saying that the
parsing rules for regclass_in are the same as they are in SQL text,
so you have to double-quote anything that is not a plain identifier
or needs to be protected against case-folding.

Hence, you should write

SELECT pg_table_size('"wei rd"');

regards, tom lane

Ahh okay, thank you both for the clarification!

On Thu, Jun 10, 2021 at 8:43 PM Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote: