On Fri, Oct 11, 2013 at 12:49 AM, Amit Kapila <amit.kapil...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 6:45 PM, Andrew Dunstan <and...@dunslane.net> wrote: >> >> On 10/09/2013 11:47 PM, Amit Kapila wrote: >>> >>> >>> One of the advantage, I could see using "NULL For .." syntax is >>> that already we have one syntax with which user can specify what >>> strings can be replaced with NULL, now just to handle quoted empty >>> string why to add different syntax. >>> >>> "FORCE_NULL" has advantage that it can be used for some columns rather >>> than all columns, but I think for that existing syntax can also be >>> modified to support it. >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> I think it's badly designed on its face. We don't need and shouldn't >> provide a facility for different NULL markers. A general facility for that >> would be an ugly an quite pointless addition to code complexity. What we >> need is simply a way of altering one specific behaviour, namely the >> treatment of quoted NULL markers. We should not do that by allowing munging >> the NULL marker per column, > > I was thinking it to similar in some sense with "insert into tbl" > statement. For example > Create table tbl (c1 int, c2 int, c3 int, c4 int) > insert into tbl (col2) values(1); > > Here after table name, user can specify column names for which he > wants to provide specific values. > >> but by a syntactical mechanism that directly >> addresses the change in behaviour. If you don't like "FORCE NULL" then let's >> pick something else, but not this ugly and unnecessary "NULL FOR" gadget. > > If you don't like idea of one generic syntax for NULLs in COPY > command, then "FORCE_QUOTED_NULL" or "QUOTED_NULL" will make more > sense as compare to FORCE_NULL.
Meh. As amused as I am with our bad naming, I don't think there's anything too terribly wrong with FORCE NULL. Symmetry has some value. -- Robert Haas EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
