[...] but OTOH "\if sql 1 from table where expr" looks awkward. Given an implicit select, I would prefer "\if exists (select 1 from table where expr)" but now it's not shorter.
Possibly, but it is just an SQL expression, which looks good in the middle of an sql script.
An advantage of prepending the SELECT automatically, is that it would prevent people from abusing this syntax by putting update/insert/delete or even DDL in there, imagining that this would be a success/failure test for these operations.
Having these fail to execute in the first place, when called by \if, seems like a sane failure mode that we would gain incidentally.
Yes, it should be avoided. -- Fabien. -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
