At 4:26 PM 7/24/98, Bruce Tong wrote:

>Since I'm learning SQL in my spare time, I tend to use these feature in MS
>Access and PgAccess to point me in the right direction or sometimes
>confirm, or deny my assertions.

Absolutely.  For new (to me) SQL, I point and click at what I think MS
would want me to point and click at, and then look at the SQL and rip out
the crap I know they got wrong, and then run it to see what they got wrong
in the new stuff, and then mess around with bits and pieces of what they
came up with until it's right.

>I like psql, but its not the kind of tool which suggests other
>alternatives. It just says "this part is bogus." That's fine, but when I
>fail to get it right after a dozen attempts, its nice to let something
>else take a stab at it.

I especially hate that it doesn't even say "this part is bogus" sometimes.
It says "error near 'from'".  *WHICH* from.  I could easily have 3 or 4 in
even the simplest query.  And god forbid it says "error near ','".  How
useless is that?!

Okay, enough bitching, I'll be positive:
psql would be infinitely nicer if it dumped out the query and indicated the
EXACT location of the problem.

--
--
-- "TANSTAAFL" Rich lynch@lscorp.com



Fri, 24 Jul 1998 17:52:43 -0500
lynch@lscorp.com (Richard Lynch)
Re: [GENERAL] Re: [INTERFACES] ODBC Driver -- Access Order By problem
	solved!!!
> I especially hate that it doesn't even say "this part is bogus" sometimes.
> It says "error near 'from'".  *WHICH* from.  I could easily have 3 or 4 in
> even the simplest query.  And god forbid it says "error near ','".  How
> useless is that?!
> 
> Okay, enough bitching, I'll be positive:
> psql would be infinitely nicer if it dumped out the query and indicated the
> EXACT location of the problem.
> 

New 6.4 psql help will show:
	
	test=> \h select
	Command: select
	Description: retrieve tuples
	Syntax:
	SELECT [DISTINCT [ON attrN]] expr1 [AS attr1], ...exprN
	        [INTO [TABLE] class_name]
	        [FROM from_list]
	        [WHERE qual]
	        [GROUP BY group_list]
	        [HAVING having_clause]
	        [ORDER BY attr1 [ASC|DESC] [USING op1], ...attrN ]
	        [UNION [ALL] SELECT ...];
	

Removed <> around user-supplied values, and uppercase the reserved words
to make things clear.  I don't think there is a need to do this on the
manual pages because we have bolding.  Comments?


-- 
Bruce Momjian                          |  830 Blythe Avenue
maillist@candle.pha.pa.us              |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  (610) 353-9879(w)
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  (610) 853-3000(h)

Fri, 24 Jul 1998 20:18:43 -0400 (EDT)
Bruce Momjian <maillist@candle.pha.pa.us>
Re: [GENERAL] Re: [INTERFACES] ODBC Driver -- Access Order By problem
	solved!!!

Now it is:

> New 6.4 psql help will show:
> 	
> 	test=> \h select
> 	Command: select
> 	Description: retrieve tuples
> 	Syntax:
> 		SELECT [DISTINCT [ON attrN]] expr1 [AS attr1], ...exprN
> 	        [INTO [TABLE] class_name]
> 	        [FROM from_list]
> 	        [WHERE qual]
> 	        [GROUP BY group_list]
> 	        [HAVING having_clause]
> 	        [ORDER BY attr1 [ASC|DESC] [USING op1], ...attrN ]
> 	        [UNION [ALL] SELECT ...];
> 	
> 
> Removed <> around user-supplied values, and uppercase the reserved words
> to make things clear.  I don't think there is a need to do this on the
> manual pages because we have bolding.  Comments?
> 
> 
> -- 
> Bruce Momjian                          |  830 Blythe Avenue
> maillist@candle.pha.pa.us              |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026
>   +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  (610) 353-9879(w)
>   +  Christ can be your backup.        |  (610) 853-3000(h)
> 
> 


-- 
Bruce Momjian                          |  830 Blythe Avenue
maillist@candle.pha.pa.us              |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  (610) 353-9879(w)
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  (610) 853-3000(h)

Fri, 24 Jul 1998 21:00:42 -0400 (EDT)
Bruce Momjian <maillist@candle.pha.pa.us>
Re: [HACKERS] Re: [GENERAL] Re: [INTERFACES] ODBC Driver -- Access
	Order By problem solved!!!