Re: Appending a newline to a column value - in a psql cronjob

On 2012-01-13, Alexander Farber <alexander(dot)farber(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I'm using PostgreSQL 8.4.9 on CentOS 6.2 and with bash.
>
> The following cronjob works well for me
> (trying to send a mail to myself - for moderation):
>
> 6 6 * * * psql -c "select
> 'http://mysite/user.php?id=' ||id, about from pref_rep where
> length(about) > 1 and last_rated > now() - interval '1 day'"
>
> but I can't figure out how to append a newline to the
> 1st value (because otherwise the line is too long
> and I have to scroll right in my mail reader):

[several command-line attempts skipped]

I'd be incluned to cheat and use a literal newline like this:

psql -c "select 'http://mysite/user.php?id=' ||id|| '
' ..... ";

I think the one you're groping in the dark for is this:

psql -c "select 'http://mysite/user.php?id=' ||id|| e'\\n' ..... ";

but I think the real problem is that that road doesn't lead where you
want to go as after appending the neline psql reformats the content
into columns (this is usually a good thing).

As you;re using cron and not the command line the rules about what's
allowable change.

try this:

psql -c "select http://mysite/user.php?id=' ||id || e'\n' || about from pref_rep where
length(about) > 1 and last_rated > now() - interval '1 day'"

or possibly with more backslashes: I'm not sure what cron does to backslashes (if anything)

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