Re: Show method of index - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

On May 18, 2009, at 10:25 PM, Tom Lane wrote:
> decibel <decibel@decibel.org> writes:
>> The gripe I have with \d is that the "footnotes" are very hard to
>> scan through once you have more than a few things on a table. What
>> I'd like to see is a version that provides the same information, but
>> in a tabular output.
>
> Hmm, I'm not visualizing what you have in mind that would be better?
> The difficulty with the "footnotes" is exactly that the information
> isn't very tabular ...

Instead of...

Indexes:    "debit_cards_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (payment_instrument_id)
Check constraints:    "debit_cards__payment_instrument_type_id_must_equal_1" CHECK  
(payment_instrument_type_id = 1)
Foreign-key constraints:    "debit_cards_customer_id_fkey" FOREIGN KEY (customer_id)  
REFERENCES customers(id)    "debit_cards_payment_instrument_status_id_fkey" FOREIGN KEY  
(payment_instrument_status_id) REFERENCES  
payment_instruments.payment_instrument_statuses(id)    "debit_cards_payment_instrument_type_id_fkey" FOREIGN KEY  
(payment_instrument_type_id) REFERENCES  
payment_instruments.payment_instrument_types(id)
Triggers:    debit_cards__deny_delete BEFORE DELETE ON  
payment_instruments.debit_cards FOR EACH STATEMENT EXECUTE PROCEDURE  
tools.tg_disallow()    debit_cards__dupe_id BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE ON  
payment_instruments.debit_cards FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE  
payment_instruments.tg_payment_instruments_unique()    payment_instrument_status_history AFTER INSERT OR UPDATE ON  
payment_instruments.debit_cards FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE  
payment_instruments.tg_payment_instrument_status_history()
Inherits: payment_instruments

Something more like...

Inherits: payment_instruments

Indexes:      Name        | Options | Method |          Columns
------------------+---------+--------+--------------------------- debit_cards_pkey | PRIMARY | btree  |
payment_instrument_id,...
 

Check constraints:                     Name                             |           
Constraint
------------------------------------------------------ 
+------------------------------- debit_cards__payment_instrument_type_id_must_equal_1 |  
payment_instrument_type_id = 1

Foreign-key constraints:                   Name                        |        Key  
Fields            |      Schema         |           Table              
| Foreign Keys
----------------------------------------------- 
+------------------------------+--------------------- 
+-----------------------------+-------------- debit_cards_customer_id_fkey                  |  
customer_id                  | public              |  
customers                   | id debit_cards_payment_instrument_status_id_fkey |  
payment_instrument_status_id | payment_instruments |  
payment_instrument_statuses | id debit_cards_payment_instrument_type_id_fkey   |  
payment_instrument_type_id   | payment_instruments |  
payment_instrument_types    | id

Triggers:             Name                  | When   | DIU |   Level   |       
Schema         |           Function
-----------------------------------+--------+-----+----------- 
+---------------------+--------------------------------------- debit_cards__deny_delete          | BEFORE | D   |
STATEMENT|  
 
tools               | tg_disallow() debit_cards__dupe_id              | BEFORE |  I  | ROW       |  
payment_instruments | tg_payment_instruments_unique() payment_instrument_status_history | AFTER  |  IU | ROW       |  
payment_instruments | tg_payment_instrument_status_history()

This format is a bit longer, but I think it makes it much easier to  
find information, especially on tables that have a lot of footnotes.

It might also be nice to have a command that just shows the options  
on a table, and one that just shows the table columns...
-- 
Decibel!, aka Jim C. Nasby, Database Architect  decibel@decibel.org
Give your computer some brain candy! www.distributed.net Team #1828