Re: Add \pset options for boolean value display - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From David G. Johnston
Subject Re: Add \pset options for boolean value display
Date
Msg-id CAKFQuwaXqVOky9czAAwOg6JPg5EruNzxjZXFyT-aShqbuU5WXw@mail.gmail.com
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In response to Re: Add \pset options for boolean value display  (Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>)
List pgsql-hackers
On Tue, Jun 24, 2025 at 3:30 PM Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
"David G. Johnston" <david.g.johnston@gmail.com> writes:
> On Thu, Mar 20, 2025 at 8:24 PM David G. Johnston <
> david.g.johnston@gmail.com> wrote:
>> It's \pset null for boolean values

> v1, Ready aside from bike-shedding the name.

Do we really want this?  It's the sort of thing that has a strong
potential to break anything that reads psql output --- and I'd
urge you to think that human consumers of psql output may well
be the minority.  There's an awful lot of scripts out there.

I concede that \pset null hasn't had a huge amount of pushback,
but that doesn't mean that making boolean output unpredictable
will be cost-free.  And the costs won't be paid by you (or me),
but by people who didn't ask for it.


If we didn't use psql to produce all of our examples I'd be a bit more accepting of this position.  Yes, users of it need to do so responsibly.  But we have tons of pretty-presentation-oriented options in psql so, yes, I do believe this is well within its charter.

David J.

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