Re: Missing functionality in ResultSetMetaData ?

On Wed, 10 Aug 2005, Thomas Dudziak wrote:

> Nope, I only browsed over the one you posted earlier (regarding
> PGResultSetMetaData). I take it that the issue with
> getColumnName/getBaseColumnName is the same as with
> getTableName/getBaseTableName ? Let me state what I understand of this
> issue: it is only possible to return the base (real ?) table name, not
> the alias.

The issue actually started with column names. The pg server currently can
return aliases for columns, but not for tables. The original complaint
was that RSMD.getColumnName better match up with something if we call
ResultSet.findColumn with it. After much discussion it was agreed that
getColumnName means the name of the query's result column not the base
table's column. Now, to be consistent getTableName must mean the query's
table as well.

> However if this is the case, then I don't think your argument given in
> http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-jdbc/2004-08/msg00021.php is
> valid, because from what I understand of the ResultSetMetaData, the
> getTableName method returns the name of the column's table, ie. IMO
> the name of the table where the column is defined in.
> So in your example this cannot be 'f' but must be 'footable'. I mean,
> what would I do with 'f' anyway ?

This isn't completely useless, consider a self join: "SELECT a.c,
b.c FROM tab a, tab b". getBaseTableName cannot distinguish this, but if
getTableName did return the alias it could. This isn't a real strong
use case though...

> IMO it should be possible to build
> structurally valid select statements from the ResultSetMetaData
> information which is not the case when returning the aliases.
> I think this is actually supported by the few places in the JDBC 3
> spec that deal with ResultSetMetaData, eg. 13.2.3:
>
> "The method PreparedStatement.getMetaData retrieves a
> ResultSetMetaData object containing a description of the columns that will be
> returned by a prepared statement when is it executed. The ResultSetMetaData
> object contains a record for each column being returned. Methods in the
> ResultSetMetaData interface provide information about the number of columns
> being returned and the characteristics of each column."
>
> Here they specifically speak about the column' characteristics (ie.
> definition) not the query.

That's not entirely clear. That's how you read it, but it is just as
easily read as "the query result's columns". The spec is awfully vague in
this area.

Kris Jurka