Re: [PATCH] Proposal for HIDDEN/INVISIBLE column

Isaac Morland <isaac.morland@gmail.com>

From: Isaac Morland <isaac.morland@gmail.com>
To: Gilles Darold <gilles@migops.com>
Cc: Vik Fearing <vik@postgresfriends.org>, PostgreSQL Developers <pgsql-hackers@lists.postgresql.org>
Date: 2021-10-17T21:48:06Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
On Sun, 17 Oct 2021 at 17:42, Gilles Darold <gilles@migops.com> wrote:


> Yes, my first though was to allow all columns to be unexpandable like a
> table without column, but the the problem is that when you execute
> "SELECT * FROM nada" it returns no rows which is not the case of a table
> with hidden column. I could fix that to return no rows if all columns
> are unexpandable but I think that all column hidden is a nonsens so I
> have prefered to not allow it and an error is raised.
>

Perhaps I misunderstand what you are saying, but a no-columns table
definitely can return rows:

psql (12.2)
Type "help" for help.

postgres=# create table nada ();
CREATE TABLE
postgres=# insert into nada default values;
INSERT 0 1
postgres=# insert into nada default values;
INSERT 0 1
postgres=# table nada;
--
(2 rows)

postgres=#

Note that psql doesn't display a separate line for each row in this case,
but the actual result coming back from the server does contain the
appropriate number of rows.