postgresql/src/backend/parser
Tom Lane ff4597acd4 Allow "SET list_guc TO NULL" to specify setting the GUC to empty.
We have never had a SET syntax that allows setting a GUC_LIST_INPUT
parameter to be an empty list.  A locution such as
	SET search_path = '';
doesn't mean that; it means setting the GUC to contain a single item
that is an empty string.  (For search_path the net effect is much the
same, because search_path ignores invalid schema names and '' must be
invalid.)  This is confusing, not least because configuration-file
entries and the set_config() function can easily produce empty-list
values.

We considered making the empty-string syntax do this, but that would
foreclose ever allowing empty-string items to be valid in list GUCs.
While there isn't any obvious use-case for that today, it feels like
the kind of restriction that might hurt someday.  Instead, let's
accept the forbidden-up-to-now value NULL and treat that as meaning an
empty list.  (An objection to this could be "what if we someday want
to allow NULL as a GUC value?".  That seems unlikely though, and even
if we did allow it for scalar GUCs, we could continue to treat it as
meaning an empty list for list GUCs.)

Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Reviewed-by: Andrei Klychkov <andrew.a.klychkov@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Jim Jones <jim.jones@uni-muenster.de>
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/CA+mfrmwsBmYsJayWjc8bJmicxc3phZcHHY=yW5aYe=P-1d_4bg@mail.gmail.com
2025-11-04 12:37:40 -05:00
..
.gitignore Convert cvsignore to gitignore, and add .gitignore for build targets. 2010-09-22 12:57:04 +02:00
analyze.c Add GROUP BY ALL. 2025-09-29 16:55:17 -04:00
check_keywords.pl Update copyright for 2025 2025-01-01 11:21:55 -05:00
gram.y Allow "SET list_guc TO NULL" to specify setting the GUC to empty. 2025-11-04 12:37:40 -05:00
gramparse.h Update copyright for 2025 2025-01-01 11:21:55 -05:00
Makefile Drop warning-free support for Flex 2.5.35 2025-01-15 15:35:08 +01:00
meson.build Drop warning-free support for Flex 2.5.35 2025-01-15 15:35:08 +01:00
parse_agg.c Calculate agglevelsup correctly when Aggref contains a CTE. 2025-09-17 16:32:57 -04:00
parse_clause.c Add GROUP BY ALL. 2025-09-29 16:55:17 -04:00
parse_coerce.c Don't include access/htup_details.h in executor/tuptable.h 2025-10-05 18:00:38 +02:00
parse_collate.c Update copyright for 2025 2025-01-01 11:21:55 -05:00
parse_cte.c Fix parse_cte.c's failure to examine sub-WITHs in DML statements. 2025-04-05 15:01:48 -04:00
parse_enr.c Update copyright for 2025 2025-01-01 11:21:55 -05:00
parse_expr.c Error message stylistic correction 2025-11-04 12:25:04 +01:00
parse_func.c Add IGNORE NULLS/RESPECT NULLS option to Window functions. 2025-10-03 09:47:36 +09:00
parse_jsontable.c Update copyright for 2025 2025-01-01 11:21:55 -05:00
parse_merge.c Add OLD/NEW support to RETURNING in DML queries. 2025-01-16 14:57:35 +00:00
parse_node.c Grab the low-hanging fruit from forcing USE_FLOAT8_BYVAL to true. 2025-08-13 17:18:22 -04:00
parse_oper.c Provide more-specific error details/hints for function lookup failures. 2025-09-16 12:17:02 -04:00
parse_param.c Update copyright for 2025 2025-01-01 11:21:55 -05:00
parse_relation.c Use CompactAttribute more often, when possible 2025-10-22 11:36:26 +13:00
parse_target.c Avoid including commands/dbcommands.h in so many places 2025-08-28 12:39:04 +02:00
parse_type.c Update copyright for 2025 2025-01-01 11:21:55 -05:00
parse_utilcmd.c Fix CREATE TABLE LIKE with not-valid check constraint 2025-09-10 13:25:58 +02:00
parser.c Use C11 char16_t and char32_t for Unicode code points. 2025-10-29 14:17:13 -07:00
README Update parser README to include parse_jsontable.c 2025-09-08 10:07:14 +09:00
scan.l Use C11 char16_t and char32_t for Unicode code points. 2025-10-29 14:17:13 -07:00
scansup.c Update copyright for 2025 2025-01-01 11:21:55 -05:00

src/backend/parser/README

Parser
======

This directory does more than tokenize and parse SQL queries.  It also
creates Query structures for the various complex queries that are passed
to the optimizer and then executor.

parser.c	things start here
scan.l		break query into tokens
scansup.c	handle escapes in input strings
gram.y		parse the tokens and produce a "raw" parse tree
analyze.c	top level of parse analysis for optimizable queries
parse_agg.c	handle aggregates, like SUM(col1),  AVG(col2), ...
parse_clause.c	handle clauses like WHERE, ORDER BY, GROUP BY, ...
parse_coerce.c	handle coercing expressions to different data types
parse_collate.c	assign collation information in completed expressions
parse_cte.c	handle Common Table Expressions (WITH clauses)
parse_expr.c	handle expressions like col, col + 3, x = 3 or x = 4
parse_enr.c	handle ephemeral named rels (trigger transition tables, ...)
parse_func.c	handle functions, table.column and column identifiers
parse_jsontable.c handle JSON_TABLE
parse_merge.c	handle MERGE
parse_node.c	create nodes for various structures
parse_oper.c	handle operators in expressions
parse_param.c	handle Params (for the cases used in the core backend)
parse_relation.c support routines for tables and column handling
parse_target.c	handle the result list of the query
parse_type.c	support routines for data type handling
parse_utilcmd.c	parse analysis for utility commands (done at execution time)

See also src/common/keywords.c, which contains the table of standard
keywords and the keyword lookup function.  We separated that out because
various frontend code wants to use it too.