Re: internationalizing text

You can use a where clause when selecting from a veiew, so the following
should work for you:

CREATE VIEW my_view AS SELECT o.*, n.descr, n.lang
FROM nation n, org o
WHERE o.nation = n.code

SELECT * FROM my_view WHERE n.lang = someKnownQuantity

Michael Fork - CCNA - MCP - A+
Network Support - Toledo Internet Access - Toledo Ohio

On Fri, 23 Mar 2001, will trillich wrote:

> On Fri, Mar 23, 2001 at 09:29:17AM -0000, Michael Ansley wrote:
> > I think that the standard way to do this is to use a resource identifier,
> > and then have a separate table with all strings. That's the way that most
> > internationalisation is done in programs, and it's probably not bad for
> > databases either.
> >
> > So maybe:
> >
> > create table something (
> > id serial,
> > yadayada int4,
> > whatever date,
> > mumble float8,
> > ...
> > id_resource int4 references something_text(id)
> > );
> > create table something_text (
> > id int4,
> > lang varchar(5), -- language code 'en-us','it','jp'...
> > descr varchar(50)
> > );
>
> i was thinking that it was probably the normalization-friendly
> version that would be most flexible.
>
> but here's where i run into snags:
>
> create table nation (
> code char(2),
> lang varchar(5),
> descr varchar(50),
> primary key (code)
> );
> insert into nation values ('us','en','United States');
> insert into nation values ('us','fr','Etats Unis');
>
> create table org (
> ...
> postcode varchar(12),
> nation char(2) references nation(code),
> ...
> );
>
> how do i get the proper "descr" field from table "nation" that's
> in language "lang=xyz" using a view, when i don't know which
> language will be used at 'compile time'? a straight select/view
> will show ALL languages for EACH 'record' sought:
>
> select o.*,n.descr
> from nation n, org o
> where o.nation = n.code
> -- and n.lang = someUnknownQuantityToBeDeterminedLater
> -- /* simple global variables would solve this, ahem... :) */
> ;
>
> right now i've got all the data-driven stuff built into the
> sql/plpgsql; the perl code does only the presenting of the
> data... i'd like to keep the functions separated, but it doesn't
> look possible here. ideas?
>
> --
> It is always hazardous to ask "Why?" in science, but it is often
> interesting to do so just the same.
> -- Isaac Asimov, 'The Genetic Code'
>
> will(at)serensoft(dot)com
> http://newbieDoc.sourceforge.net/ -- we need your brain!
> http://www.dontUthink.com/ -- your brain needs us!
>