Re: [PROPOSAL] : Disallow use of empty column name in (column_name '') in ALTER or CREATE of foreign table.

On Fri, Aug 16, 2024 at 8:26 PM Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
>
> Nishant Sharma <nishant(dot)sharma(at)enterprisedb(dot)com> writes:
> > Actual column names used while creation of foreign table are not allowed to
> > be an
> > empty string, but when we use column_name as an empty string in OPTIONS
> > during
> > CREATE or ALTER of foreign tables, it is allowed.
>
> Is this really a bug? The valid remote names are determined by
> whatever underlies the FDW, and I doubt we should assume that
> SQL syntax restrictions apply to every FDW. Perhaps it would
> be reasonable to apply such checks locally in SQL-based FDWs,
> but I object to assuming such things at the level of
> ATExecAlterColumnGenericOptions.

I agree.

>
> More generally, I don't see any meaningful difference between
> this mistake and the more common one of misspelling the remote
> column name, which is something we're not going to be able
> to check for (at least not in anything like this way). If
> you wanted to move the ease-of-use goalposts materially,
> you should be looking for a way to do that.

I think this check should be delegated to an FDW validator.

--
Best Wishes,
Ashutosh Bapat