Re: using querys like: 'select table.*'

On 3/12/2009 7:58 AM, erobles wrote:
> Hi!
>
> In postgresql 7.2 i can use this kind of querys:
>
> select table.* ;
>
> select * from table1 where table1.key=othertable.key;
>
>
> but in postgresql 8.3 i have an error like this:
> ERROR: missing FROM-clause entry for table ...
>
>
> what should i do to solve this? :-)

You've already been pointed to the workaround backward-compat option.

What's happening here is that you're doing an implicit inner join. Your
query is being interpreted by PostgreSQL as if you wrote:

select * from table1, othertable where table1.key=othertable.key;

though I prefer to write it as the IMO more readable:

select * from table1 INNER JOIN othertable ON table1.key=othertable.key;

This behaviour isn't supported anymore partly is because it's way too
easy to write:

select * from table1 where table1.key=typotable.key;

and get confusing error messages or, if `typotable' exists, confusing
query results. I'm pretty sure there were more reasons too, but I wasn't
really active on the lists when that was going on.

It's also really confusing when reading a query.

So - as already pointed out, you will need to re-write your queries to
add the required tables to the from clause.

--
Craig Ringer