Re: [PATCH] Proposal for HIDDEN/INVISIBLE column

Dave Page <dpage@pgadmin.org>

From: Dave Page <dpage@pgadmin.org>
To: Gilles Darold <gilles@darold.net>
Cc: Pavel Stehule <pavel.stehule@gmail.com>, Vik Fearing <vik@postgresfriends.org>, Aleksander Alekseev <aleksander@timescale.com>, Gilles Darold <gilles@migops.com>, PostgreSQL Hackers <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
Date: 2021-10-14T13:38:13Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
On Thu, Oct 14, 2021 at 2:32 PM Gilles Darold <gilles@darold.net> wrote:

> Le 14/10/2021 à 14:28, Pavel Stehule a écrit :
>
>
>
> čt 14. 10. 2021 v 14:13 odesílatel Vik Fearing <vik@postgresfriends.org>
> napsal:
>
>> On 10/14/21 1:47 PM, Aleksander Alekseev wrote:
>> > Hi Gilles,
>> >
>> >> Any though and interest in this feature?
>> >
>> > Personally, I wouldn't call this feature particularly useful. `SELECT
>> > *` is intended for people who are working with DBMS directly e.g. via
>> > psql and want to see ALL columns.
>>
>> I disagree strongly with this.  It is really annoying when working
>> interactively with psql on a table that has a PostGIS geometry column,
>> or any other large blobby type column.
>>
>> I have not looked at the patch, but +1 for the feature.
>>
>
> Cannot be better to redefine some strategies for output for some types.
>
> I can agree so sometimes in some environments proposed features can be
> nice, but it can be a strong footgun too.
>
> Maybe some strange data can be filtered in psql and it can be better
> solution. I agree, so usually print long geometry in psql is useless.
>
>
> Pavel this doesn't concern only output but input too, think about the
> INSERT or COPY without a column list. We can add such filter in psql but
> how about other clients? They all have to implement their own filtering
> method. I think the HIDDEN attribute provide a common and basic way to
> implement that in all client application.
>

I like the idea - being able to hide computed columns such as tsvectors
from CRUD queries by default seems like it would be very nice for example.

-- 
Dave Page
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Twitter: @pgsnake

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