Re: psql wishlist: value completion

Steve Crawford wrote:

> On Friday 13 August 2004 12:18 pm, David Garamond wrote:
>
>>Wouldn't it be cool if someday psql could do value completion?
>>
>> # delete from person where lastname = 'Garam<tab>
>> # delete from person where lastname = 'Garamond' _
>>
>> # delete from person where firstname = 'Da<tab><tab>
>> # delete from person where firstname = 'Da
>> Damian Darren Dave David Dawson
>>
>> # delete from person where firstname = 'D<tab><tab>
>> Display all 215 possibilities? (y or n)
>
>
> Sure it would be cool - but as far as I can tell totally impractical.
>
> Determining all the possible expandable values for a particular column
> could very well require a full-table-scan of a multi-million row
> table each time you try to tab-expand. Not only would performance be
> terrible but get a few users doing this and you could really hammer
> the server.

Why you need a full-table-scan ? The search will be an anchored search and
with the right operator class a index scan can occur.
However I have do admit that is nice but impratical.

Regards
Gaetano Mendola