Re: Join troubles between pg_index and pg_indexes with capitalization in pg_indexes.tablename - Mailing list pgsql-novice

From Tom Lane
Subject Re: Join troubles between pg_index and pg_indexes with capitalization in pg_indexes.tablename
Date
Msg-id 697.1326329491@sss.pgh.pa.us
Whole thread Raw
In response to Join troubles between pg_index and pg_indexes with capitalization in pg_indexes.tablename  (Bob Branch <bbranch@nabancard.com>)
List pgsql-novice
Bob Branch <bbranch@nabancard.com> writes:
> I've got a script in which I'm attempting to list all indexes that
> aren't the PK for a given table.  The query I'm using for this is:

> SELECT i.indexname, i.indexdef FROM pg_indexes i
>    INNER JOIN pg_index p ON p.indrelid = i.tablename::regclass::oid
>    WHERE i.schemaname = 'public'
>      AND i.tablename = 'tablename_goes_here'
>      AND p.indisprimary = false

> This works for tables with what I'm sure we'd all consider to be
> "proper" naming (all lower-case, underscores between words), but our
> database unfortunately has vast numbers of tables that use camel case
> and spaces in the table names (eg- "Status", "Sales Rep", etc.).

Not to mention that it's utterly unsafe if you have equal table names in
different schemas.  You should really not be using pg_indexes in this
query, as it is a view meant for human consumption, not something
helpful for basing further catalog joins on.  Try looking directly at
pg_class and pg_index.  In particular, if all you want is non-PK
indexes, you could just do something like

    select indexrelid::regclass from pg_index where not indisprimary;

If you need an explicit join to pg_class (perhaps because you have more
filter conditions than just "is it primary"), you should be joining
pg_class.oid to indexrelid or indrelid, rather than making something up
with table names.  The names are not suitable as join keys.

            regards, tom lane

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