Re: New "single" COPY format

Aleksander Alekseev wrote:

> IMO it should be 'text' we already have with special options e.g.
> DELIMITER AS NULL ESCAPE AS NULL. If there are no escape characters
> and column delimiters (and no NULLs designations, and what else I
> forgot) then your text file just contains one tuple per line.

+1 for the idea that accepting "no delimiter" and "no escape"
as a valid combination for the text format seems better
than adding a new format.
However inviting "NULL" into that syntax when it has nothing to do
with the SQL "NULL" does not look like a good idea.
Maybe DELIMITER '' ESCAPE '', or DELIMITER NONE ESCAPE NONE.

Besides, "single" as a format name does not sound right.
Generally the name for a text format designates a set
of characteristics meaning that certain combinations of
characters have specific behaviors.
Sometimes "plain" is used in the context of text formats
to indicate that no character is special ("plain" is also the
default subtype of "text" in MIME types).

"single" as proposed is to be understood as "single-column",
which is a consequence of the lack of a field delimiter, but
not an intrinsic characteristic of the format.
If COPY accepted fixed-length fields, it could be in a
no-delimiter no-escape mode and still handle multiple
columns, in opposition to what "single" suggests.

Best regards,
--
Daniel Vérité
https://postgresql.verite.pro/
Twitter: @DanielVerite