postgresql/doc
Tom Lane 83f1c7b742 Fix ECPG's handling of type names that match SQL keywords.
Previously, ECPG could only cope with variable declarations whose
type names either weren't any SQL keyword, or were at least partially
reserved.  If you tried to use something in the unreserved_keyword
category, you got a syntax error.

This is pretty awful, not only because it says right on the tin that
those words are not reserved, but because the set of such keywords
tends to grow over time.  Thus, an ECPG program that was just fine
last year could fail when recompiled with a newer SQL grammar.
We had to work around this recently when STRING became a keyword,
but it's time for an actual fix instead of a band-aid.

To fix, borrow a trick from C parsers and make the lexer's behavior
change when it sees a word that is known as a typedef.  This is not
free of downsides: if you try to use such a name as a SQL keyword
in EXEC SQL later in the program, it won't be recognized as a SQL
keyword, leading to a syntax error there instead.  So in a real
sense this is just trading one hazard for another.  But there is an
important difference: with this, whether your ECPG program works
depends only on what typedef names and SQL commands are used in the
program text.  If it compiles today it'll still compile next year,
even if more words have become SQL keywords.

Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/3661437.1653855582@sss.pgh.pa.us
2022-07-12 17:05:46 -04:00
..
src Fix ECPG's handling of type names that match SQL keywords. 2022-07-12 17:05:46 -04:00
KNOWN_BUGS Remove extra newlines at end and beginning of files, add missing newlines 2010-08-19 05:57:36 +00:00
Makefile Remove maintainer-check target, fold into normal build 2013-10-10 20:11:56 -04:00
MISSING_FEATURES Remove extra newlines at end and beginning of files, add missing newlines 2010-08-19 05:57:36 +00:00
TODO Change documentation references to PG website to use https: not http: 2017-05-20 21:50:47 -04:00