Re: BUG #16265: psql shows (unfolded) relation name in quotes

PG Bug reporting form <noreply(at)postgresql(dot)org> writes:
> -------------------
> test=> \d+ Schedule
> Did not find any relation named "Schedule".
> -------------------
> EXPECTED:
> -------------------
> test=> \d+ Schedule
> Did not find any relation named "schedule".
> -------------------

Yeah, it just reports what you typed. The difficulty in doing differently
is that what you typed might not be *meant* to be interpreted literally,
because it's a pattern not a simple name. What should we do for example
with

regression=# \d+ foo*
Did not find any relation named "foo*".

A more interesting example, perhaps, is that these don't mean the same
thing:

regression=# \d+ "Foo*"
Did not find any relation named ""Foo*"".
regression=# \d+ "Foo"*
Did not find any relation named ""Foo"*".

(If I had a table named "Foot", the first case wouldn't find it but
the second would.) I'm not clear on how we could report a post-processed
version of the input that would distinguish these in a non-confusing way.

Part of the issue is that the double-quote characters are being used in
two different ways. The ones that the error message is wrapping around
the regurgitated input are not to be confused with quotes used in the
input; they're just there to separate the fixed and variable parts of
the message. This is a little easier to follow in some other languages
where different quoting characters are used in error messages, but in
English we've concluded we just have to live with it.

tl;dr: it's not that obvious what would be an improvement here.

regards, tom lane