Since you pretty much invented your own language
Expressions are in PostgreSql syntax. I expected that there is some way to force PostgreSql to evaluate them at runtime using something like pgsql EXECUTE For example, 'Hello <<firstname||'' ''||lastname>>!' should be converted (inverted) to 'Hello ' || firstname||' '||lastname || '!' and then pgsql EXECUTE can be used to perform text merge just like .asp pages are pre-processed and compiled. How to do this is PostgreSql or in C# in MONO/.NET ?
Personally I think you're using a bad example here, as usually names don't just involve firstname and surname, but frequently have infixes, suffixes and titles and such. Not all of those fields are going to have values for every person in your database. What happens if you don't have a Tom Lane, but a mr. Lane, or if you have both but want to address a person more politely?
COALESCE(), CASE WHEN and other pgsql constructs can be used to create correct address expressions from any data. Andrus. -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
