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Provide adequate documentation of the "table_name *" notation.

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Somewhere along the line, somebody decided to remove all trace of this
notation from the documentation text.  It was still in the command syntax
synopses, or at least some of them, but with no indication what it meant.
This will not do, as evidenced by the confusion apparent in bug #7543;
even if the notation is now unnecessary, people will find it in legacy
SQL code and need to know what it does.
This commit is contained in:
Tom Lane
2012-09-17 14:59:50 -04:00
parent 9a699b705c
commit 8bae564f6a
7 changed files with 70 additions and 63 deletions
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22
doc/src/sgml/config.sgml
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@@ -4648,11 +4648,23 @@ dynamic_library_path = 'C:\tools\postgresql;H:\my_project\lib;$libdir'
<indexterm><primary>inheritance</></>
<listitem>
<para>
This controls the inheritance semantics. If turned <literal>off</>,
subtables are not included by various commands by default; basically
an implied <literal>ONLY</literal> key word. This was added for
compatibility with releases prior to 7.1. See
<xref linkend="ddl-inherit"> for more information.
This setting controls whether undecorated table references are
considered to include inheritance child tables. The default is
<literal>on</>, which means child tables are included (thus,
a <literal>*</> suffix is assumed by default). If turned
<literal>off</>, child tables are not included (thus, an
<literal>ONLY</literal> prefix is assumed). The SQL standard
requires child tables to be included, so the <literal>off</> setting
is not spec-compliant, but it is provided for compatibility with
<productname>PostgreSQL</> releases prior to 7.1.
See <xref linkend="ddl-inherit"> for more information.
</para>
<para>
Turning <varname>sql_inheritance</> off is deprecated, because that
behavior has been found to be error-prone as well as contrary to SQL
standard. Discussions of inheritance behavior elsewhere in this
manual generally assume that it is <literal>on</>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

29
doc/src/sgml/ddl.sgml
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@@ -1995,6 +1995,23 @@ SELECT name, altitude
<literal>ONLY</literal> keyword.
</para>
<para>
You can also write the table name with a trailing <literal>*</>
to explicitly specify that descendant tables are included:
<programlisting>
SELECT name, altitude
FROM cities*
WHERE altitude &gt; 500;
</programlisting>
Writing <literal>*</> is not necessary, since this behavior is
the default (unless you have changed the setting of the
<xref linkend="guc-sql-inheritance"> configuration option).
However writing <literal>*</> might be useful to emphasize that
additional tables will be searched.
</para>
<para>
In some cases you might wish to know which table a particular row
originated from. There is a system column called
@@ -2182,18 +2199,6 @@ VALUES ('New York', NULL, NULL, 'NY');
inheritance is useful for your problem.
</para>
<note>
<title>Deprecated</title>
<para>
In releases of <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> prior to 7.1, the
default behavior was not to include child tables in queries. This was
found to be error prone and also in violation of the SQL
standard. You can get the pre-7.1 behavior by turning off the
<xref linkend="guc-sql-inheritance"> configuration
option.
</para>
</note>
</sect2>
</sect1>

10
doc/src/sgml/queries.sgml
View File

@@ -139,6 +139,16 @@ FROM <replaceable>table_reference</replaceable> <optional>, <replaceable>table_r
&mdash; any columns added in subtables are ignored.
</para>
<para>
Instead of writing <literal>ONLY</> before the table name, you can write
<literal>*</> after the table name to explicitly specify that descendant
tables are included. Writing <literal>*</> is not necessary since that
behavior is the default (unless you have changed the setting of the <xref
linkend="guc-sql-inheritance"> configuration option). However writing
<literal>*</> might be useful to emphasize that additional tables will be
searched.
</para>
<sect3 id="queries-join">
<title>Joined Tables</title>

15
doc/src/sgml/ref/alter_table.sgml
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@@ -433,15 +433,12 @@ where <replaceable class="PARAMETER">action</replaceable> is one of:
<term><replaceable class="PARAMETER">name</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The name (possibly schema-qualified) of an existing table to
alter. If <literal>ONLY</> is specified, only that table is
altered. If <literal>ONLY</> is not specified, the table and all
its descendant tables (if any) are updated. <literal>*</> can be
appended to the table name to indicate that descendant tables are
to be altered, but in the current version, this is the default
behavior. (In releases before 7.1, <literal>ONLY</> was the
default behavior. The default can be altered by changing the
configuration parameter <xref linkend="guc-sql-inheritance">.)
The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing table to
alter. If <literal>ONLY</> is specified before the table name, only
that table is altered. If <literal>ONLY</> is not specified, the table
and all its descendant tables (if any) are altered. Optionally,
<literal>*</> can be specified after the table name to explicitly
indicate that descendant tables are included.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

27
doc/src/sgml/ref/delete.sgml
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@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ PostgreSQL documentation
<refsynopsisdiv>
<synopsis>
DELETE FROM [ ONLY ] <replaceable class="PARAMETER">table</replaceable> [ [ AS ] <replaceable class="parameter">alias</replaceable> ]
DELETE FROM [ ONLY ] <replaceable class="PARAMETER">table</replaceable> [ * ] [ [ AS ] <replaceable class="parameter">alias</replaceable> ]
[ USING <replaceable class="PARAMETER">usinglist</replaceable> ]
[ WHERE <replaceable class="PARAMETER">condition</replaceable> | WHERE CURRENT OF <replaceable class="PARAMETER">cursor_name</replaceable> ]
[ RETURNING * | <replaceable class="parameter">output_expression</replaceable> [ AS <replaceable class="parameter">output_name</replaceable> ] [, ...] ]
@@ -45,13 +45,6 @@ DELETE FROM [ ONLY ] <replaceable class="PARAMETER">table</replaceable> [ [ AS ]
</para>
</tip>
<para>
By default, <command>DELETE</command> will delete rows in the
specified table and all its child tables. If you wish to delete only
from the specific table mentioned, you must use the
<literal>ONLY</literal> clause.
</para>
<para>
There are two ways to delete rows in a table using information
contained in other tables in the database: using sub-selects, or
@@ -82,21 +75,17 @@ DELETE FROM [ ONLY ] <replaceable class="PARAMETER">table</replaceable> [ [ AS ]
<title>Parameters</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>ONLY</></term>
<listitem>
<para>
If specified, delete rows from the named table only. When not
specified, any tables inheriting from the named table are also processed.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="parameter">table</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing table.
The name (optionally schema-qualified) of the table to delete rows
from. If <literal>ONLY</> is specified before the table name,
matching rows are deleted from the named table only. If
<literal>ONLY</> is not specified, matching rows are also deleted
from any tables inheriting from the named table. Optionally,
<literal>*</> can be specified after the table name to explicitly
indicate that descendant tables are included.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

16
doc/src/sgml/ref/select.sgml
View File

@@ -184,16 +184,12 @@ where <replaceable class="parameter">from_item</replaceable> can be one of:
<term><replaceable class="parameter">table_name</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing table or
view. If <literal>ONLY</> is specified, only that table is
scanned. If <literal>ONLY</> is not specified, the table and
all its descendant tables (if any) are scanned. <literal>*</>
can be appended to the table name to indicate that descendant
tables are to be scanned, but in the current version, this is
the default behavior. (In releases before 7.1,
<literal>ONLY</> was the default behavior.) The default
behavior can be modified by changing the <xref
linkend="guc-sql-inheritance"> configuration option.
The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing table or view.
If <literal>ONLY</> is specified before the table name, only that
table is scanned. If <literal>ONLY</> is not specified, the table
and all its descendant tables (if any) are scanned. Optionally,
<literal>*</> can be specified after the table name to explicitly
indicate that descendant tables are included.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

14
doc/src/sgml/ref/update.sgml
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@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ PostgreSQL documentation
<refsynopsisdiv>
<synopsis>
UPDATE [ ONLY ] <replaceable class="PARAMETER">table</replaceable> [ [ AS ] <replaceable class="parameter">alias</replaceable> ]
UPDATE [ ONLY ] <replaceable class="PARAMETER">table</replaceable> [ * ] [ [ AS ] <replaceable class="parameter">alias</replaceable> ]
SET { <replaceable class="PARAMETER">column</replaceable> = { <replaceable class="PARAMETER">expression</replaceable> | DEFAULT } |
( <replaceable class="PARAMETER">column</replaceable> [, ...] ) = ( { <replaceable class="PARAMETER">expression</replaceable> | DEFAULT } [, ...] ) } [, ...]
[ FROM <replaceable class="PARAMETER">fromlist</replaceable> ]
@@ -39,13 +39,6 @@ UPDATE [ ONLY ] <replaceable class="PARAMETER">table</replaceable> [ [ AS ] <rep
columns not explicitly modified retain their previous values.
</para>
<para>
By default, <command>UPDATE</command> will update rows in the
specified table and all its subtables. If you wish to only update
the specific table mentioned, you must use the <literal>ONLY</>
clause.
</para>
<para>
There are two ways to modify a table using information contained in
other tables in the database: using sub-selects, or specifying
@@ -82,6 +75,11 @@ UPDATE [ ONLY ] <replaceable class="PARAMETER">table</replaceable> [ [ AS ] <rep
<listitem>
<para>
The name (optionally schema-qualified) of the table to update.
If <literal>ONLY</> is specified before the table name, matching rows
are updated in the named table only. If <literal>ONLY</> is not
specified, matching rows are also updated in any tables inheriting from
the named table. Optionally, <literal>*</> can be specified after the
table name to explicitly indicate that descendant tables are included.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>