On Sunday 28 December 2003 11:15, D. Dante Lorenso wrote:
> The only SQL customizations that MySQL has that I really miss in PostgreSQL
> are the commands:
>
> SHOW DATABASES;
\l
> SHOW TABLES;
\dt
> DESC table;
\d tablename
>
> That was ubber simple to do in MySQL. To this day, I have trouble with
> that in PostgreSQL. I'm constantly doing:
>
> psql> \?
> psql> help;
> ERROR: syntax error at or near "help" at character 1
> psql> \h
> ...
> * damnit, that's not it...*
> psql> \?
> psql> \d
> * ok, now which flag do I use for tables vs functions..etc?*
\df for functions and \dt for tables.
Problem is psql is unique though very powerful. I need to use oracle's
sql-plus on HP-UX at times(Otherwise I crawl back to TOAD) and I don't think
it is nowhere near to psql.
or may be I play with postgresql more than oracle..:-) anyways
> I finally figure it out, I just end up forgetting again later. I still
> have no clue how I'd find the same data without using psql. In MySQL
> I can run those queries from PHP, PERL...etc. I know you can find that
> data in system tables in PostgreSQL, but I don't wanna muck around with
> all that. I just wanna do something as simple as MySQL.
Well, actually I would say it is great way of learning postgresql internals.
There is a switch -E to psql which shows you queries sent to server for each
command you provide.
Problem with mysql is the approach is easy to start with but adding those
command in your standard list of SQL commands falls out on standard
compliance and maintainability.
Another post on this thread mentioned postgresql should run against oracle.
Sole reason postgresql v/s mysql debate should exist is to provide
comparision in feasibility study. The hurdles you mentioned are true but that
are just part of bit steeper learning curve of a standard way of doing
things..
Shridhar
