Ralf Junker wrote: >> On a separate note, it is best for one to be able to name a table or column >> et al anything one wants, with all the choice of names as you can store in >> a text column for user data. Reserved words aren't an issue as long as >> entity names are referred to with an unambiguously different syntax, such >> as quoted identifiers as SQL does support. Then database users don't have >> to worry about implementation details and can name tables and columns >> whatever they want; saying they can't name their column "RowID" is a leaky >> abstraction. > > Sure we all dislike restrictions. Can you suggest an alternative to a single reserved name to represent the column which uniquely identifies a database record under any and all circumstances?
Yes, change the interface to RowID into a routine call rather than a column name; eg use "RowID()" rather than "RowID". Then when using it in a SELECT, you can say "RowID() as foo" in the select list where "foo" is different than a normal table field. Such is how 'standard' SQL does it. Any manager app can read the database schema first and generate a name "foo" that is distinct. -- Darren Duncan P.S. Alternately, you can eliminate RowID entirely as a user-visible concept, leaving it just to SQLite's internals. And also disallow storing duplicate rows, so that the values of the row fields themselves will uniquely identify a database record under any and all circumstances. _______________________________________________ sqlite-users mailing list sqlite-users@sqlite.org http://sqlite.org:8080/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sqlite-users
