Re: PSQL commands: \quit_if, \quit_unless

2016-12-17 16:26 GMT+01:00 Fabien COELHO <coelho(at)cri(dot)ensmp(dot)fr>:

>
> Hello Tom,
>
> So I think it would be reasonable for somebody to implement \if,
>>> \elseif, \endif first, with the argument having to be, precisely, a
>>> single variable and nothing else (not even a negator). [...]
>>>
>>
> This seems like a reasonable implementation plan to me, not least because
>> it tackles the hard part first. There's no doubt that we can build an
>> expression evaluator, but I'm not entirely sure how we're going to wedge
>> conditional eval or loops into psql's command reader.
>>
>> (Or in other words, let's see \while ... \endloop in the minimal proposal
>> as well, or at least a sketch of how to get there.)
>>
>
> My 0.02 €:
>
> I have not seen any use case for a loop... Does someone have something
> convincing? I could think of some use in benchmarking (aka in pgbench), but
> not psql... But I may lack imagination.
>
> If one realistic case is found, then from a syntactic point of view
> "\while expr ... \endwhile/loop/whatever" looks straightforward enough.
>

maybe iteration over cursor can be interesting - but now with with \gexec
it is not important.

>
> However, the implementation issues are pretty different from "if" which
> can be managed pretty simply on the fly with a stack and a little
> automaton. A loop needs to store its body and evaluate it over and over,
> which means having processed the input up to the end of the loop before
> proceeding, including nesting and so... it is a much less interactive
> friendly construct.
>
> Note that although "cpp" has an if, but it does not have any loop.
>
> In my opinion psql should stay at that same simple level: ISTM that the
> typical psql-script requirement is to be able to test some things, eg for
> installing or upgrading the schema of an application, and for that
> variables, expressions server side and maybe client side, and conditions
> are mostly enough. A lot of "IF EXISTS" added to many commands recently are
> motivated to handle this kind of use-case at the command per command level,
> which is not necessarily the right place.
>
> A while loops turns a simple thing into a potential Turing-complete beast,
> without a strong incentive I think that it should be avoided.
>

+1

Pavel

>
> --
> Fabien.