An example being discussed on the jdbc list led me to try this: regression=# create table a$b$c (f1 int); CREATE TABLE regression=# \d a$b$c Did not find any relation named "a$b$c".
It works if you use quotes: regression=# \d "a$b$c" Table "public.a$b$c" Column | Type | Modifiers --------+---------+----------- f1 | integer | The reason it doesn't work without quotes is that processSQLNamePattern() thinks this: * Inside double quotes, or at all times if force_escape is true, * quote regexp special characters with a backslash to avoid * regexp errors. Outside quotes, however, let them pass through * as-is; this lets knowledgeable users build regexp expressions * that are more powerful than shell-style patterns. and of course $ is a regexp special character, so it bollixes up the match. Now, because we surround the pattern with ^...$ anyway, I can't offhand see a use-case for putting $ with its regexp meaning into the pattern. And since we do allow $ as a non-first character of identifiers, there is a use-case for expecting it to be treated like an ordinary character. So I'm thinking that $ ought to be quoted whether it's inside double quotes or not. This change would affect psql's describe commands as well as pg_dump -t and -n patterns. Comments? regards, tom lane ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 1: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate subscribe-nomail command to [EMAIL PROTECTED] so that your message can get through to the mailing list cleanly