Greg Smith <gsm...@gregsmith.com> writes: > On Sun, 24 May 2009, Pavel Stehule wrote: >> we should have a secondary function explain_query(query_string, >> option) that returns setof some.
> +1. The incremental approach here should first be adding functions that > actually do the work required. Then, if there's a set of those that look > to be extremely useful, maybe at that point it's worth talking about how > to integrate them into the parser. Starting with the parser changes > rather than the parts that actually do the work is backwards. If you do > it the other way around, at all times you have a patch that actually > provides immediate useful value were it to be committed. > Something that returns a setof can also be easily used to implement the > "dump EXPLAIN to a table" feature Josh Tolley brought up (which is another > common request in this area). A serious problem with EXPLAIN via a function returning set, or with putting the result into a table, is that set results are logically unordered, just as table contents are. So from a strict point of view this only makes sense when the output format is designed to not depend on row ordering to convey information. We could certainly invent such a format, but I think it's a mistake to go in this direction for EXPLAIN output that is similar to the current output. regards, tom lane -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers