Fix array_out's failure to backslash backslashes, per bug# 524. Also,

remove brain-dead rule that double quotes are needed if and only if the
datatype is pass-by-reference; neither direction of the implication holds
water.  Instead, examine the actual data string to see if it contains
any characters that force us to quote it.
Add some documentation about quoting of array values, which was previously
explained nowhere AFAICT.

1 files changed, 33 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/array.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/array.sgml
index 99cfde85f2c..1696d61c257 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/array.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/array.sgml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-<!-- $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/array.sgml,v 1.17 2001/11/28 20:49:09 petere Exp $ -->
+<!-- $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/array.sgml,v 1.18 2001/11/29 21:02:41 tgl Exp $ -->
 
 <chapter id="arrays">
  <title>Arrays</title>
@@ -248,4 +248,36 @@ SELECT * FROM sal_emp WHERE pay_by_quarter **= 10000;
   </para>
  </note>
 
+ <formalpara>
+  <title>Quoting array elements.</title>
+  <para>
+   As shown above, when writing an array literal value you may write double
+   quotes around any individual array
+   element.  You <emphasis>must</> do so if the element value would otherwise
+   confuse the array-value parser.  For example, elements containing curly
+   braces, commas, double quotes, backslashes, or white space must be
+   double-quoted.  To put a double quote or backslash in an array element
+   value, precede it with a backslash.
+  </para>
+ </formalpara>
+
+ <tip>
+  <para>
+   Remember that what you write in an SQL query will first be interpreted
+   as a string literal, and then as an array.  This doubles the number of
+   backslashes you need.  For example, to insert a <type>text</> array
+   value containing a backslash and a double quote, you'd need to write
+<programlisting>
+INSERT ... VALUES ('{"\\\\","\\""}');
+</programlisting>
+   The string-literal processor removes one level of backslashes, so that
+   what arrives at the array-value parser looks like <literal>{"\\","\""}</>.
+   In turn, the strings fed to the <type>text</> datatype's input routine
+   become <literal>\</> and <literal>"</> respectively.  (If we were working
+   with a datatype whose input routine also treated backslashes specially,
+   <type>bytea</> for example, we might need as many as eight backslashes
+   in the query to get one backslash into the stored array element.)
+  </para>
+ </tip>
+
 </chapter>