Re: SHOW command always returns text field

Excerpts from Tom Lane's message of mié ago 10 14:12:49 -0400 2011:
> Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net> writes:
> > I was slightly surprised the other day that the SHOW command always
> > returns a field of type text even if the underlying parameter has one of
> > the other types (int, real, etc.).  Is this intentional?  Would it be
> > worth refining?
> 
> I'm disinclined to mess with it.  One thing that couldn't easily be
> "cleaned up" is the textual output for nominally-numeric parameters
> that have units.

How about having it return a record?  We could have the units in a
separate column ... and perhaps show the raw value too (I have wished to
see the raw value plenty of times).  Backwards compatibility is a
serious problem though :-)

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Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@commandprompt.com>
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