Joseph Adams <joeyadams3.14...@gmail.com> writes: > Here's a thought: suppose we did use the foo (name => value) syntax > for naming parameters. It could still be used in a very similar way > for hstore:
> hstore(key1 => 'value1', key2 => 'value2') No, that really isn't going to work: how will the parser know that the names are not meant to match to actual named parameters of the function? You could possibly do it with a special case for hstore() in the grammar, but we aren't going there, because it wouldn't be extensible. The other variant with 'key1' => 'value1' isn't a lot better. Yes, we could make it work since it can't possibly be name => value, but it would be impossibly error-prone for people to use. The assumption that you can always replace a constant by a variable is very deeply wired into users' thinking, but doing so would make for a radical change in what the syntax meant. >From a usability point of view, if we adopt the spec's syntax we have to stop allowing => for any other purpose. Period. 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