Thread: Syntax question: use of join/using with fully qualified table name

I've got a join where a certain column name appears twice:

select username,last_name from eg_member join eg_membership using
(member_id) join eg_account using (account_id) join eg_person using
(person_id);
ERROR:  common column name "person_id" appears more than once in left table


My first inclination was to fully quality the table name.  Why would
this not be acceptable syntax?

select username,last_name from eg_member join eg_membership using
(member_id) join eg_account using (account_id) join eg_person using
(eg_member.person_id);
ERROR:  syntax error at or near "." at character 145


Of course I eventually wrote it:

select username,last_name from eg_member join eg_membership using (member_id) join eg_account using (account_id) join
eg_personon eg_member.person_id=eg_person.person_id';
 



PostgreSQL 8.1.9 on i686-redhat-linux-gnu, compiled by GCC gcc (GCC) 4.1.1 20070105 (Red Hat 4.1.1-51)


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Bryce Nesbitt escribió:
> I've got a join where a certain column name appears twice:
> 
> select username,last_name from eg_member join eg_membership using
> (member_id) join eg_account using (account_id) join eg_person using
> (person_id);
> ERROR:  common column name "person_id" appears more than once in left table
> 
> 
> My first inclination was to fully quality the table name.  Why would
> this not be acceptable syntax?
> 
> select username,last_name from eg_member join eg_membership using
> (member_id) join eg_account using (account_id) join eg_person using
> (eg_member.person_id);
> ERROR:  syntax error at or near "." at character 145

Did you read the manual?

USING (join_column [, ...])
    A clause of the form USING ( a, b, ... ) is shorthand for ON 
left_table.a = right_table.a AND left_table.b = right_table.b .... Also, 
USING implies that only one of each pair of equivalent columns will be 
included in the join output, not both.

Bryce Nesbitt <bryce1@obviously.com> writes:
> I've got a join where a certain column name appears twice:
> select username,last_name from eg_member join eg_membership using
> (member_id) join eg_account using (account_id) join eg_person using
> (person_id);
> ERROR:  common column name "person_id" appears more than once in left table

> My first inclination was to fully quality the table name.  Why would
> this not be acceptable syntax?

Because USING is defined as joining common column names.  It is driven
entirely by the column names, not any "qualification", and it needs to
have well-defined behavior.  The SQL92 spec saith
        <named columns join> ::=             USING <left paren> <join column list> <right paren>
        <join column list> ::= <column name list>
        <column name list> ::=             <column name> [ { <comma> <column name> }... ]
        <column name> ::= <identifier>
        ...
           b) If a <named columns join> is specified, then every <column             name> in the <join column list>
shallbe the <column name>             of exactly one column of T1 and the <column name> of exactly             one
columnof T2.
 
        regards, tom lane