On Fri, Aug 17, 2012 at 5:44 PM, Tom Lane <tgl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Adam Mackler <adammackler@xxxxxxxxx> writes: >> I notice when I save a view, I lose all the formatting and comments. >> As I was writing a complicated view, wanting to retain the format and >> comments, I thought I could just save it as a function that returns a >> table value. A function would evaluate to the same value as a view, >> but changing it later might be less confusing. > > A lot of people choose to save the source text in some sort of SCM > (eg git), and then just import via CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW when they > change it. This tends to soon scale up to large scripts that define > collections of related objects. > >> However, I'm guessing (since I don't know anything about the >> internals) that the loss of formatting and comments is a result of the >> view being processed and stored in a more computer-friendly format, >> while functions are simply stored as the text that I type. > > Correct. The reparse time per se is generally not a big deal, but the > execution penalty associated with a function can be. If you go this way > you'll want to make sure that your function can be "inlined" --- use > EXPLAIN to make sure you get a plan matching the bare view, and not just > something that says "Function Scan". For various reasons, this often goes the wrong way. Views are often the right way to go. +1 on your comment above -- the right way to do views (and SQL in general) is to organize scripts and to try and avoid managing everything through GUI tools. It works. merlin -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
