On Thu, 2011-08-04 at 14:20 -0500, Kevin Grittner wrote: > Peter Eisentraut <pete...@gmx.net> wrote: > > > According to scientific-ish database literature, a table is a > > relation and vice versa. > > I've generally understood the terms more like what is described near > the top of this page: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relation_%28database%29 > > "In SQL, [...] a relation variable is called a table."
The SQL spec also uses "table" to refer to a *value*. So we certainly can't turn that around and say "a table in SQL is a relation variable". It's all a bit loose anyway, because SQL tables aren't really relations or relation variables (for instance, they can contain duplicates). Regards, Jeff Davis -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers