Thread: Column Name = column does not exist

Thanks for your time.
 
I'm in the process of trying to incorporate three Human Resource systems into one.  Each of the three systems had a different author and no standards were followed - consequently the table design leaves a bit to be desired.  One of the most critical tables has a field named:Last_Name (case specific).  When I execute 'Select Last_Name from employee' the statement fails with the following message: column "last_name" does not exist.  If I wrap the field name in quotes "Last_Name" for example, the query works as expected.
 
Is this typical behavior?
 
Thanks again.

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brian stapel wrote:
> Thanks for your time.
>
> I'm in the process of trying to incorporate three Human Resource
> systems into one.  Each of the three systems had a different author
> and no standards were followed - consequently the table design leaves
> a bit to be desired.  One of the most critical tables has a field
> named:Last_Name (case specific).  When I execute 'Select Last_Name
> from employee' the statement fails with the following message: column
> "last_name" does not exist.  If I wrap the field name in quotes
> "Last_Name" for example, the query works as expected.
>
> Is this typical behavior?
>
Yes.  Postgresql case-collapses unless things are quoted.  The rule of
thumb is, if you quote anywhere, you probably should quote EVERYWHERE.

Sean

On Mon, Jan 08, 2007 at 16:38:57 -0600,
  brian stapel <brians_224@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for your time.
>
> I'm in the process of trying to incorporate three Human Resource systems into one.  Each of the three systems had a
differentauthor and no standards were followed - consequently the table design leaves a bit to be desired.  One of the
mostcritical tables has a field named:Last_Name (case specific).  When I execute 'Select Last_Name from employee' the
statementfails with the following message: column "last_name" does not exist.  If I wrap the field name in quotes
"Last_Name"for example, the query works as expected. 
>
> Is this typical behavior?

Yes. In postgres, unquoted column and table names are converted to lower case.

In general, the advice is to either never quote names or always quote them.