Re: last comma inside "CREATE TABLE ()" statements

On Sun, Apr 22, 2001 at 07:44:46PM +0100, some SMTP stream spewed forth:
> Tom Lane wrote:
>   >Louis-David Mitterrand <vindex@apartia.ch> writes:
>   >> Is it against the SQL standard to accept a trailing comma in a table
>   >> declaration?
>   >
>   >Yes ...
>   >
>   >> CREATE TABLE "currency" (
>   >>     currency_id varchar(3),
>   >>     rate float, <-------------------- BOOM! parse error
>   >> );
>   >
>   >> As in perl, it would make life easier to simply ignore/accept a trailing
>   >> comma on table declarations.
>   >
>   >... however, this seems like a reasonable idea that would not introduce
>   >any major problems.  I have no objections, if someone wants to submit
>   >a grammar patch.

I can think of no place where this would be even remotely useful.
Is it really that difficult to remove a comma?
If it works now for *all* users of PostgreSQL, why should we change it?


gh

>
> I suppose it isn't a major problem, but enforcing strict grammar
> helps to show up inadvertent errors.  Suppose I have a set of schema
> building files for a whole system; the way I do things, there may be fifty
> or more files, one per table.  If one of these gets corrupted in editing
> (perhaps a line gets deleted by mistake) it would be nice to know about it
> through a parser error. Of course, an error may be such that the parser
> won't detect it, but why remove protection by gratuitously departing from
> the standard?
>
> --
> Oliver Elphick                                Oliver.Elphick@lfix.co.uk
> Isle of Wight                              http://www.lfix.co.uk/oliver
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