Re: All numeric database names?

[Steve Crawford <scrawford(at)pinpointresearch(dot)com>]

Chris Hoover wrote:
> Just wanted to check, are there any problems/gotcha's to having a 
> cluster of all numeric database names?  We are thinking of switching 
> our database naming system to use our customer number (a 6 digit 
> integer) for the database name.  Is a negative/bad thing?
Technically speaking, it will be of data type "name". You can use all 
digits for the database name as you can with tables and columns (create 
table "1" ("2" text);) but you may run into places where you have to 
quote the name. For instance, in psql you might need to switch databases 
with:

\c "123456"

instead of

\c 123456

Alternately, you could prepend 1+ alpha characters to the customer 
numbers to create names like c123456 or cust123456 which don't need to 
be quote-enclosed. Personally, I try to avoid reserved words and 
anything else that requires special handling.

Cheers,
Steve