Re: misleading error message in ProcessUtilitySlow T_CreateStatsStmt

Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@kurilemu.de>

From: Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@kurilemu.de>

To: Kirill Reshke <reshkekirill@gmail.com>

Cc: jian he <jian.universality@gmail.com>, PostgreSQL-development <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>

Date: 2025-08-22T09:46:45Z

Lists: pgsql-hackers

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Same data as JSON: GET /api/v1/messages/:b64id/commits the thread's linked commits as JSON, with link sources. API reference →

CREATE STATISTICS: improve misleading error message
- cbd3732cbbaa 14.20 landed
- 4529861cc408 15.15 landed
- f30c04682cdf 16.11 landed
- f9b41f3e1ecd 17.7 landed
- 38883916e41c 18.0 landed
- 9ec0b29976b6 19 (unreleased) landed
- f9a7622483c3 15.15 landed
- f225473cbae2 19 (unreleased) landed
- e9fb314c7ad8 17.7 landed
- d84a6c3dad1f 16.11 landed
- b830f9d67463 14.20 landed
- 3eea4dc2c7cf 18.0 landed
Glossary: improve definition of "relation"
- 16a9165ce4a4 19 (unreleased) landed
Extended statistics on expressions
- a4d75c86bf15 14.0 cited

On 2025-Aug-21, Kirill Reshke wrote:

> I wouldn’t say this is misleading, but " a single relation" is indeed
> not precise enough. IMO we need a more precise term to distinguish
> regular relation and table func.

I'm not sure.  See the definition of relation in the glossary:
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/glossary.html#GLOSSARY-RELATION

  The generic term for all objects in a database that have a name and a
  list of attributes defined in a specific order. Tables, sequences,
  views, foreign tables, materialized views, composite types, and
  indexes are all relations.

  More generically, a relation is a set of tuples; for example, the
  result of a query is also a relation.

  In PostgreSQL, Class is an archaic synonym for relation.

(I wonder why this says "generically" rather than "generally".  Is that
word choice a mistake?)  Maybe in the "For example" clause we can also
mention table functions.

-- 
Álvaro Herrera        Breisgau, Deutschland  —  https://www.EnterpriseDB.com/