Re: Problems with outer joins in 7.1beta5

Barry Lind <barry(at)xythos(dot)com> writes:
> What I would expect the syntax to be is:
> table as alias (columna as aliasa, columnb as aliasb,...)
> This will allow the query to work regardless of what the table column
> order is. Generally the SQL spec has tried not to tie query behaviour
> to the table column order.

Unfortunately, the spec authors seem to have forgotten that basic design
rule when they wrote the aliasing syntax. Column alias lists are
position-sensitive:

<table reference> ::=
<table name> [ [ AS ] <correlation name>
[ <left paren> <derived column list> <right paren> ] ]
| <derived table> [ AS ] <correlation name>
[ <left paren> <derived column list> <right paren> ]
| <joined table>

<derived column list> ::= <column name list>

<column name list> ::=
<column name> [ { <comma> <column name> }... ]

SQL99 seems to be no better. Sorry.

regards, tom lane