Time as keyword

Dwayne Miller <dwayne-miller@home.com> writes:

Did time become a keyword in 7.2? 7.1.3 allowed it as a column name...
7.2 rejects it.

It's always been a keyword, but it is "more reserved" than it used to
be. See

http://developer.postgresql.org/docs/postgres/sql-keywords-appendix.html

However, according to that list TIME is still allowed as a column name,
and indeed I get:

regression=# create table foo (f1 time, time time);
CREATE

So I'm not sure what you did.

regards, tom lane

On Thu, Jan 03, 2002 at 10:20:21PM -0500, Dwayne Miller wrote:

Did time become a keyword in 7.2?

$ grep TIME src/backend/parser/keywords.c
{"current_time", CURRENT_TIME},
{"current_timestamp", CURRENT_TIMESTAMP},
{"time", TIME},
{"timestamp", TIMESTAMP},
--
Holger Krug
hkrug@rationalizer.com

Did time become a keyword in 7.2? 7.1.3 allowed it as a column name...
7.2 rejects it.

Yes. We now support SQL99 time and timestamp precision, which require
that TIME(p) be a type specification. So there are parts of the grammar
which cannot easily fit "time" anymore.

You could/should use the SQL99 list of reserved words as a guide for
which keywords to *not* use, even though some of them are currently
accepted as, for example, column names. In the meantime, you can
double-quote the column name if you really need it to stay "time".

- Thomas

Did time become a keyword in 7.2? 7.1.3 allowed it as a column name...
7.2 rejects it.

Yes. We now support SQL99 time and timestamp precision, which require
that TIME(p) be a type specification. So there are parts of the grammar
which cannot easily fit "time" anymore.

Isn't the grammar explicit enough to distinguish a value (in this case function
call) from a type name ? It seems a type name will only appear in very specific
contexts.
Imho it would be nice if we could allow "select timestamp(xxx);",
and this has been the umpteenth request in this regard, and 7.2 is not even
released yet.

Andreas

I tried to create table foo (t time, time time); and received an error
something like
'Error parsing near time'

I'm on 7.2.b2

I'll upgrade and try again.

Tom Lane wrote:

"Zeugswetter Andreas SB SD" <ZeugswetterA@spardat.at> writes:

Imho it would be nice if we could allow "select timestamp(xxx);",
and this has been the umpteenth request in this regard, and 7.2 is not even
released yet.

Unfortunately, there's just no way. If we tried, it would be ambiguous
whether, say, "timestamp(6)" is a function call or a type name.

This is not one of my favorite parts of SQL92 syntax :-(

regards, tom lane

...

Imho it would be nice if we could allow "select timestamp(xxx);",
and this has been the umpteenth request in this regard, and 7.2 is not even
released yet.

afaicr one of the very sticky areas is the SQL99-specified syntax for
date/time literals:

timestamp(6) '2001-01-08 04:05:06'

which is difficult to reconcile with a function named timestamp:

timstamp(something)

- Thomas

Imho it would be nice if we could allow "select timestamp(xxx);",
and this has been the umpteenth request in this regard, and 7.2 is not even
released yet.

afaicr one of the very sticky areas is the SQL99-specified syntax for
date/time literals:

timestamp(6) '2001-01-08 04:05:06'

which is difficult to reconcile with a function named timestamp:

But since '2001-01-08 04:05:06' is in single quotes it can't be
a column label, which would be the only other "token?" after a function,
no ?

So it is eighter timestamp(6) followed by ' a single quote, or timestamp
is a function in this context ???

Andreas