Re: Column name 'user' not allowed?

On Wed, Jul 07, 2004 at 05:17:08PM -0400, Bill Moran wrote:
> Thomas Mueller <news-exp-dec04(at)tmueller(dot)com> wrote:
> > now I can create the table! I don't see a reason why column name USER
> > isn't allowed?!
>
> Because it's a reserved word in PostgreSQL's SQL syntax.
>
> You can also work around this by enclosing the name in quotes. This also
> makes the column name case-sensitive though, so you need to be sure that
> _all_ processes/code/whatever that accesses this table can properly address
> the column with the proper case. i.e. if you use "USER" and later try to
> SELECT user FROM poc_user_account, you'll get an error that the column
> doesn't exist.

Even worse, you don't get an error at all, but you get your current connection
username:

alberto=# select user from pg_database;
current_user
--------------
alberto
alberto
alberto
(3 rows)

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Alberto Cabello Sánchez
alberto(at)unex(dot)es
Servicio de Informática
924 289 351
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