Re: Recursive queries?

Tom Lane wrote:
> =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Hans-J=FCrgen_Sch=F6nig?= <postgres(at)cybertec(dot)at> writes:
>
>>Does this patch have a serious chance to make it into Pg some day?
>>I think Oracle's syntax is not perfect but is easy to handle and many
>>people are used to it. In people's mind recursive queries = CONNECT BY
>>and many people (like me) miss it sadly.
>
>
> I would prefer to see us supporting the SQL-standard syntax (WITH etc),
> as it is (1) standard and (2) more flexible than CONNECT BY. The Red
> Hat work mentioned earlier in the thread was aimed at supporting the
> standard syntax.
>
> regards, tom lane

I have already expected an answer like that.
In my very personal opinion (don't cut my head off) I'd vote for both
syntaxes.
The reasons for that are fairly easy to explain:

- I have to agree with Tom (1, 2).

- CONNECT BY makes sense because it is easier to build applications
supporting Oracle and PostgreSQL. In case of more complex applications
(CONNECT BY is definitely more than pure storage of simple data)
Oracle-Pg compliance is really important (I have seen that a dozen times).

From a marketing point of view both versions make sense - Oracle->Pg
migration is an increasing market share.
From a technical point of view I completely agree with Tom (I have
learned in the past that Tom us usually right).

Regards,

Hans

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