Mandatory AS keyword in SELECT statements

Hi,

We are currently trying to migrate an Oracle database to PostgreSQL.
Unfortunately, the Java application that access the database does not
use the AS keyword to alias column names in select statements.

Thus, the following statement "SELECT col1 alias1 FROM any_table" fails.

AFAIK, AS is optional according to SQL Standard.
Is there a way to workaround this behaviour, as it will be not possible
for us to modify the application ?
Is there a plan to support this in future PostgreSQL releases ?

I apologize in advance if this question has already been submited, I was
not able to find some threads discussing this point.

Thanks for your help,
Best Regards,
Vincent

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vincent(dot)moreau(at)adeoservices(dot)com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> We are currently trying to migrate an Oracle database to PostgreSQL.
> Unfortunately, the Java application that access the database does not
> use the AS keyword to alias column names in select statements.
>
> Thus, the following statement "SELECT col1 alias1 FROM any_table" fails.
>
> AFAIK, AS is optional according to SQL Standard.
> Is there a way to workaround this behaviour, as it will be not possible
> for us to modify the application ?
> Is there a plan to support this in future PostgreSQL releases ?
>
> I apologize in advance if this question has already been submited, I was
> not able to find some threads discussing this point.

Unfortunately, this is on our TODO list as something we are not planning
to do:

* Allow AS in "SELECT col AS label" to be optional (not wanted)

Because we support postfix operators, it isn't possible to make AS
optional and continue to use bison.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://postgres.enterprisedb.com

+ If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +

On Fri, Jan 04, 2008 at 09:31:41AM -0500, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> Unfortunately, this is on our TODO list as something we are not planning
> to do:
>
> * Allow AS in "SELECT col AS label" to be optional (not wanted)
>
> Because we support postfix operators, it isn't possible to make AS
> optional and continue to use bison.

For reference, the problematic examples are:

SELECT a + b; -- Is this (a +) aliased to "b", or (a+b) with no alias
SELECT 'foo'::character varying -- Is "varying" an alias or part of the type name?

See this thread:
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2003-04/msg00436.php

Have a nice day,
--
Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog(at)svana(dot)org> http://svana.org/kleptog/
> Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
> -- John F Kennedy

Martijn van Oosterhout wrote:
-- Start of PGP signed section.
> On Fri, Jan 04, 2008 at 09:31:41AM -0500, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> > Unfortunately, this is on our TODO list as something we are not planning
> > to do:
> >
> > * Allow AS in "SELECT col AS label" to be optional (not wanted)
> >
> > Because we support postfix operators, it isn't possible to make AS
> > optional and continue to use bison.
>
> For reference, the problematic examples are:
>
> SELECT a + b; -- Is this (a +) aliased to "b", or (a+b) with no alias
> SELECT 'foo'::character varying -- Is "varying" an alias or part of the type name?
>
> See this thread:
> http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2003-04/msg00436.php

Interesting. I have added that URL to the TODO list.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://postgres.enterprisedb.com

+ If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +