Waiting for PostgreSQL 10 – Support \if … \elif … \else … \endif in psql scripting.

On 30th of March 2017, Tom Lane committed patch:

Support \if ... \elif ... \else ... \endif in psql scripting.
 
This patch adds nestable conditional blocks to psql.  The control
structure feature per se is complete, but the boolean expressions
understood by \if and \elif are pretty primitive; basically, after
variable substitution and backtick expansion, the result has to be
"true" or "false" or one of the other standard spellings of a boolean
value.  But that's enough for many purposes, since you can always
do the heavy lifting on the server side; and we can extend it later.
 
Along the way, pay down some of the technical debt that had built up
around psql/command.c:
* Refactor exec_command() into a function per command, instead of
being a 1500-line monstrosity.  This makes the file noticeably longer
because of repetitive function header/trailer overhead, but it seems
much more readable.
* Teach psql_get_variable() and psqlscanslash.l to suppress variable
substitution and backtick expansion on the basis of the conditional
stack state, thereby allowing removal of the OT_NO_EVAL kluge.
* Fix the no-doubt-once-expedient hack of sometimes silently substituting
mainloop.c's previous_buf for query_buf when calling HandleSlashCmds.
(It's a bit remarkable that commands like \r worked at all with that.)
Recall of a previous query is now done explicitly in the slash commands
where that should happen.
 
Corey Huinker, reviewed by Fabien Coelho, further hacking by me
 
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/CADkLM=c94OSRTnat=LX0ivNq4pxDNeoomFfYvBKM5N_xfmLtAA@mail.gmail.com

This is great. I've long wanted more power in psql – as I use it all the time for all interactions with databases.

Now, we can have some logic in the scripts, which will definitely make certain things easier.

For example, let's consider this simplistic example:

SELECT current_setting('port') = '5100' AS is_master \gset
\IF :is_master
    \SET PROMPT1 '\nmaster %x$ '
\ELSE
    \SET PROMPT1 '\nslave %x$ '
\endif

First line select true/false value depending on current port of server that I'm connected to. Then, \if will set appropriate prompt. Like this:

=$ PSQLRC=$( pwd )/test.sql psql -p 5100
psql (10devel)
TYPE "help" FOR help.
 
master $ \q
 
=$ PSQLRC=$( pwd )/test.sql psql -p 5101
psql (10devel)
TYPE "help" FOR help.
 
slave $ \q

Of course inside \if blocks you can put anything you want – queries, inclusion of other files, or nested \if clauses. Great stuff, thanks a lot.

4 thoughts on “Waiting for PostgreSQL 10 – Support \if … \elif … \else … \endif in psql scripting.”

It’s not even released and you’re already finding uses for it (.psqlrc) I hadn’t considered. Nice.

It is great feature, Thank you, Corey

Frankly I don’t understand why everyone is so excited about this feature. Same could be done before using PL/pgSQL code blocks. I personally have in my .psqlrc this code:

“`
select (case when pg_is_in_recovery() then ‘replica’ else ‘master’ end) as master_or_replica
\gset

\set PROMPT1 ‘%p (%:master_or_replica:) =# ‘
“`

… for quite some time. Perhaps someone could provide a real good example of why these \if and \else are so useful?

Aleksander – you cannot COMMIT or ROLLBACK inside a plpgsql block.

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