PgFormatter: A PostgreSQL SQL syntax beautifier • Hacker News Board

Re: PgFormatter: A PostgreSQL SQL syntax beautifier

#21

Post by tejtm » Wed, Oct 10, 2018, 9:26 PM UTC

accnumnplus1 wrote: post #10

Do we need to use caps for SQL keywords? My understanding is that it served a purpose back in the days of monochrome screens, but modern IDEs colour the keywords so caps are now redundant. Though I don't use caps even without colouring, I find them just a nuisance.

I got over all caps SQL keywords a very long time ago. If anything, I think it hurts readability while taking (me) longer to write.

Re: PgFormatter: A PostgreSQL SQL syntax beautifier

#22

Post by codefined » Wed, Oct 10, 2018, 10:38 PM UTC

omaranto wrote: post #15

I've never heard of a code formatter called a "syntax beautifier" before. The phrase "syntax beautifier" sounds more like a compiler plug-in that actually changes the language syntax to something more beautiful.

It's a relatively common name. I would say it might even be more common than the alternative of "code formatter". I do agree that the syntax of the language isn't changing, but it does seem like the phrase that has stuck.

Re: PgFormatter: A PostgreSQL SQL syntax beautifier

#23

Post by codefined » Wed, Oct 10, 2018, 10:39 PM UTC

chrisjc wrote: post #13

Looks like they might need a formatter to beautify their README too.

I might be missing something, but it seems like a fairly high quality README file. What do you feel is wrong with it?

Re: PgFormatter: A PostgreSQL SQL syntax beautifier

#24

Post by zeroimpl » Wed, Oct 10, 2018, 11:03 PM UTC

eric_the_read wrote: post #14

I'll have to see if I can adapt this to my somewhat idiosyncratic syntax: SELECT field, other_field FROM table WHERE some_thing IN ( SELECT id FROM other_table ) AND other_field IS NOT NULL (mostly it's right-aligning keywords, but there are a few other weird tweaks)

I tried your SQL in the demo, and it came out like this:

    SELECT
        field,
        other_field
    FROM
        TABLE
    WHERE
        some_thing IN (
            SELECT
                id
            FROM
                other_table)
            AND other_field IS NOT NULL

I'd have expected the last line to have one less indentation level...

Re: PgFormatter: A PostgreSQL SQL syntax beautifier

#25

Post by ComputerGuru » Thu, Oct 11, 2018, 1:18 AM UTC

eric_the_read wrote: post #14

I'll have to see if I can adapt this to my somewhat idiosyncratic syntax: SELECT field, other_field FROM table WHERE some_thing IN ( SELECT id FROM other_table ) AND other_field IS NOT NULL (mostly it's right-aligning keywords, but there are a few other weird tweaks)

I’ve adopted the same format myself, it reminds me of aligning numbers at the decimal point.

Re: PgFormatter: A PostgreSQL SQL syntax beautifier

#26

Post by dokem » Thu, Oct 11, 2018, 1:30 AM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #2

Pasting "SELECT 1,2," then clicking [FORMAT MY CODE] on their online demo[1] seems to break something. It renders the site header, but nothing else. [1] http://sqlformat.darold.net/ Also, a similar tool was recently discussed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18087514

injection lol

Re: PgFormatter: A PostgreSQL SQL syntax beautifier

#27

Post by hnxx » Thu, Oct 11, 2018, 2:26 AM UTC

I really hope there will be a sql formatter like prettier for javascript, I have tried Intellij's sql formater and mysql workbench's sql formatter, neither has some warts.

Re: PgFormatter: A PostgreSQL SQL syntax beautifier

#28

Post by mjibson » Thu, Oct 11, 2018, 3:37 AM UTC

hnxx wrote: post #27

I really hope there will be a sql formatter like prettier for javascript, I have tried Intellij's sql formater and mysql workbench's sql formatter, neither has some warts.

https://www.cockroachlabs.com/blog/sql-fmt-online-sql-format... was on here last week. It's a sql formatter based on the same paper prettier is.

Re: PgFormatter: A PostgreSQL SQL syntax beautifier

#29

Post by mjibson » Thu, Oct 11, 2018, 3:39 AM UTC

eric_the_read wrote: post #14

I'll have to see if I can adapt this to my somewhat idiosyncratic syntax: SELECT field, other_field FROM table WHERE some_thing IN ( SELECT id FROM other_table ) AND other_field IS NOT NULL (mostly it's right-aligning keywords, but there are a few other weird tweaks)

sqlfmt gets pretty close to this: https://sqlfum.pt/?n=30&indent=4&spaces=1&simplify=1&align=2...

Re: PgFormatter: A PostgreSQL SQL syntax beautifier

#30

Post by ioltas » Thu, Oct 11, 2018, 4:50 AM UTC

nine_k wrote: post #5

A 100% Perl project in 2018 is a rare sight. (Implementing a SQL formatter in pure SQL is not impossible, but would be quite a tour de force. Just a thought.)

The most productive language of Gilles, well-known in the Postgres community by the way, is perl, and he can do completely crazy things with it. See for example pgbadger (https://github.com/darold/pgbadger), one of his other projects.