Subject: Re: 4.1.4. Special Characters On 28.10.26 Peter Eisentraut wrote: > I think the section that you are patching is more for roughly mentioning > all the possible uses of various characters, but it's not the > authoritative source for what all those characters mean in detail in > those contexts. Otherwise, this could get out of hand. I would have > expected to find that for this particular case on the SELECT reference > page, but it's not mentioned there either. Maybe that page should be > updated?
Thanks for the review. That makes sense. The attached v2 drops the change to section 4.1.4 and instead adds a sentence to the SELECT List section of the SELECT reference page. It says that neither * nor table_name.* includes system columns, which must be listed by name, and links to the System Columns section. The docs build cleanly with make check and make html. Thanks and Regards, On Wed, Oct 28, 2026 at 3:32 PM Peter Eisentraut <[email protected]> wrote: > > On 28.10.26 09:15, Arvind Kandpal wrote: > > The attached patch adds a sentence to the asterisk item in section > > 4.1.4, saying that system columns are not included in * and must be > > selected by name, with the suggested example and a link to the System > > Columns section. > > > > I built the docs locally (make check and make html) and the new text > > and link render fine. > > I think the section that you are patching is more for roughly mentioning > all the possible uses of various characters, but it's not the > authoritative source for what all those characters mean in detail in > those contexts. Otherwise, this could get out of hand. I would have > expected to find that for this particular case on the SELECT reference > page, but it's not mentioned there either. Maybe that page should be > updated? > -- Arvind Kandpal Junior Software Engineer (+91) 9650266413 www.ksolves.com Years of listing on
From 854ef5beb6212ffa49bc81b8c61c9724aa913c4b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Arvind Kandpal <[email protected]> Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2026 13:38:26 +0530 Subject: [PATCH v2] doc: Mention that * does not include system columns Update the SELECT reference page to say that * and table_name.* in the output list do not include system columns, which must be listed by name, and link to the System Columns section. Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/178782026936.2606573.10270614257871556...@wrigleys.postgresql.org --- doc/src/sgml/ref/select.sgml | 3 +++ 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+) diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/ref/select.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/ref/select.sgml index 18392f7caec..d1964463da6 100644 --- a/doc/src/sgml/ref/select.sgml +++ b/doc/src/sgml/ref/select.sgml @@ -1158,6 +1158,9 @@ EXCLUDE NO OTHERS shorthand for the columns coming from just that table. In these cases it is not possible to specify new names with <literal>AS</literal>; the output column names will be the same as the table columns' names. + Neither form includes system columns; they must be listed by name, + as in <literal>SELECT ctid, * FROM t</literal>. (See <xref + linkend="ddl-system-columns"/>.) </para> <para> -- 2.43.0
