Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@commandprompt.com> writes:
> I don't know much about this oddity but my first guess is that it's
> mandated by the SQL standard.
Yeah. The spec defines that you can split a literal across lines this
way. Notable quotes from SQL92:
<separator> ::= { <comment> | <space> | <newline> }...
1) In a <character string literal> or <national character string
literal>, the sequence:
<quote> <character representation>... <quote>
<separator>... <quote> <character representation>... <quote>
is equivalent to the sequence
<quote> <character representation>... <character representa-
tion>... <quote>
4) In a <character string literal>, <national character string
literal>, <bit string literal>, or <hex string literal>, a <sep-
arator> shall contain a <newline>.
regards, tom lane