7.1. Overview (The SQL Language)

On Wed, May 11, 2011 at 3:38 PM, Grzegorz Szpetkowski
<gszpetkowski@gmail.com> wrote:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/queries-overview.html

"Assuming that there is a table called table1, this command would
retrieve all rows and all columns from table1."

Maybe it's worth adding:

"Assuming that there is a table called table1, this command would
retrieve all rows and all columns (excluding system columns described
at Section 5.4) from table1."

Since this is a basic SQL tutorial, we don't want to get too far down
into the weeds, or people will get confused. The next sentence would
need some thought, too:

The select list specification <literal>*</literal> means all columns
that the table expression happens to provide.

Possibly we could add a footnote?

--
Robert Haas
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company

Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> writes:

On Wed, May 11, 2011 at 3:38 PM, Grzegorz Szpetkowski
<gszpetkowski@gmail.com> wrote:

Maybe it's worth adding:

"Assuming that there is a table called table1, this command would
retrieve all rows and all columns (excluding system columns described
at Section 5.4) from table1."

Since this is a basic SQL tutorial, we don't want to get too far down
into the weeds, or people will get confused.

I agree. Mentioning system columns at all in this place seems like
too much information.

regards, tom lane

Grzegorz Szpetkowski wrote:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/queries-overview.html

"Assuming that there is a table called table1, this command would
retrieve all rows and all columns from table1."

Maybe it's worth adding:

"Assuming that there is a table called table1, this command would
retrieve all rows and all columns (excluding system columns described
at Section 5.4) from table1."

I considered this but it seems like too much detail for the overview
section.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

+ It's impossible for everything to be true. +

bruce wrote:

Grzegorz Szpetkowski wrote:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/queries-overview.html

"Assuming that there is a table called table1, this command would
retrieve all rows and all columns from table1."

Maybe it's worth adding:

"Assuming that there is a table called table1, this command would
retrieve all rows and all columns (excluding system columns described
at Section 5.4) from table1."

I considered this but it seems like too much detail for the overview
section.

On second thought, I added the "user-defined" modifier to the sentence;
applid patch attached.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

+ It's impossible for everything to be true. +