Michael Glaesemann <grzm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > Except, why doesn't it work in the CREATE TABLE statement? The UNIQUE/PRIMARY KEY syntax only allows bare column names, per the SQL standard. While there's not any technical reason why we couldn't extend that syntax, there's a pretty large fear factor involved: we could find ourselves behind the spec-compliance eight-ball if the SQL committee exercises their prerogative to extend the syntax in some other direction. CREATE INDEX is entirely outside the spec (as the whole concept of indexes is outside the spec) and so we can pretty much do what we please within that statement. This is exactly the same reason why we don't support opclass names in UNIQUE/PRIMARY KEY, as has been suggested several times recently, eg http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-03/msg00163.php regards, tom lane
