Re: Functions example results incorrect

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: Thom Brown <thom(at)linux(dot)com>
Cc: pgsql-docs <pgsql-docs(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: Functions example results incorrect
Date: 2011-07-07 23:16:54
Message-ID: 6044.1310080614@sss.pgh.pa.us
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Thom Brown <thom(at)linux(dot)com> writes:
> On 1 July 2011 19:17, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
>> Thom Brown <thom(at)linux(dot)com> writes:
>>> The quote literal example of quote_literal('O\'Reilly') doesn't work
>>> on my installation by default.

>> Hmm, should we use an E'' literal there, or change the input to be
>> 'O''Reilly'? The former would confuse people who didn't understand E''
>> literals, while the latter would make it look like quote_literal wasn't
>> doing anything at all, so neither alternative seems to offer much
>> clarity.

> My concern is that people copying the example as a way to quote their
> string literal will find that, by default, it doesn't work. I'll
> leave it to your better judgement though as I can see that the E''
> notation could potentially confuse. It is possible, either way, to
> add a footnote to the example?

On further study, I notice that somebody already E-ified all the other
examples where it was important; the quote_literal example simply got
overlooked, I think. It seems better to use E'' there than make the
example potentially confusing as to what the function accomplishes.

Also, I looked at the examples for binary strings, and decided that
converting the sample outputs to hex format would render the examples
a lot less readable (since the inputs are not shown in that format).
So instead I'm going to add this:

<note>
<para>
The sample results shown on this page assume that the server parameter
<link linkend="guc-bytea-output"><varname>bytea_output</></link> is set
to <literal>escape</literal> (the traditional PostgreSQL format).
</para>
</note>

regards, tom lane

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