I inserted a bunch of rows with a text field like content='...\n...\n...'.
I didn't use e in front, like conent=e'...\n...\n..., so now \n is not actually displayed as a newline - it's printed as text.
How do I fix this, i.e. how to change every row's content field from '...' to e'...'?
The syntax variant E'string' makes Postgres interpret the given string as Posix escape string. \n encoding a newline is only one of many interpreted escape sequences (even if the most common one). See:
Insert text with single quotes in PostgreSQL
To "re-evaluate" your Posix escape string, you could use a simple function with dynamic SQL like this:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION f_eval_posix_escapes(INOUT _string text)
LANGUAGE plpgsql AS
$func$
BEGIN
EXECUTE 'SELECT E''' || _string || '''' INTO _string;
END
$func$;
WARNING 1: This is inherently unsafe! We have to evaluate input strings dynamically without quoting and escaping, which allows SQL injection. Only use this in a safe environment.
WARNING 2: Don't apply repeatedly. Or it will misinterpret your actual string with genuine \ characters, etc.
WARNING 3: This simple function is imperfect as it cannot cope with nested single quotes properly. If you have some of those, consider instead:
Unescape a string with escaped newlines and carriage returns
Apply:
UPDATE tbl
SET content = f_eval_posix_escapes(content)
WHERE content IS DISTINCT FROM f_eval_posix_escapes(content);
db<>fiddle here
Note the added WHERE clause to skip updates that would not change anything. See:
How do I (or can I) SELECT DISTINCT on multiple columns?
Use REPLACE in an update query. Something like this: (I'm on mobile so please ignore any typo or syntax erro)
UPDATE table
SET
column = REPLACE(column, '\n', e'\n')
I have a table test(id,name).
I need to insert values like: user's log, 'my user', customer's.
insert into test values (1,'user's log');
insert into test values (2,''my users'');
insert into test values (3,'customer's');
I am getting an error if I run any of the above statements.
If there is any method to do this correctly please share. I don't want any prepared statements.
Is it possible using sql escaping mechanism?
String literals
Escaping single quotes ' by doubling them up → '' is the standard way and works of course:
'user's log' -- incorrect syntax (unbalanced quote)
'user''s log'
Plain single quotes (ASCII / UTF-8 code 39), mind you, not backticks `, which have no special purpose in Postgres (unlike certain other RDBMS) and not double-quotes ", used for identifiers.
In old versions or if you still run with standard_conforming_strings = off or, generally, if you prepend your string with E to declare Posix escape string syntax, you can also escape with the backslash \:
E'user\'s log'
Backslash itself is escaped with another backslash. But that's generally not preferable.
If you have to deal with many single quotes or multiple layers of escaping, you can avoid quoting hell in PostgreSQL with dollar-quoted strings:
'escape '' with '''''
$$escape ' with ''$$
To further avoid confusion among dollar-quotes, add a unique token to each pair:
$token$escape ' with ''$token$
Which can be nested any number of levels:
$token2$Inner string: $token1$escape ' with ''$token1$ is nested$token2$
Pay attention if the $ character should have special meaning in your client software. You may have to escape it in addition. This is not the case with standard PostgreSQL clients like psql or pgAdmin.
That is all very useful for writing PL/pgSQL functions or ad-hoc SQL commands. It cannot alleviate the need to use prepared statements or some other method to safeguard against SQL injection in your application when user input is possible, though. #Craig's answer has more on that. More details:
SQL injection in Postgres functions vs prepared queries
Values inside Postgres
When dealing with values inside the database, there are a couple of useful functions to quote strings properly:
quote_literal() or quote_nullable() - the latter outputs the unquoted string NULL for null input.
There is also quote_ident() to double-quote strings where needed to get valid SQL identifiers.
format() with the format specifier %L is equivalent to quote_nullable().
Like: format('%L', string_var)
concat() or concat_ws() are typically no good for this purpose as those do not escape nested single quotes and backslashes.
According to PostgreSQL documentation (4.1.2.1. String Constants):
To include a single-quote character within a string constant, write
two adjacent single quotes, e.g. 'Dianne''s horse'.
See also the standard_conforming_strings parameter, which controls whether escaping with backslashes works.
This is so many worlds of bad, because your question implies that you probably have gaping SQL injection holes in your application.
You should be using parameterized statements. For Java, use PreparedStatement with placeholders. You say you don't want to use parameterised statements, but you don't explain why, and frankly it has to be a very good reason not to use them because they're the simplest, safest way to fix the problem you are trying to solve.
See Preventing SQL Injection in Java. Don't be Bobby's next victim.
There is no public function in PgJDBC for string quoting and escaping. That's partly because it might make it seem like a good idea.
There are built-in quoting functions quote_literal and quote_ident in PostgreSQL, but they are for PL/PgSQL functions that use EXECUTE. These days quote_literal is mostly obsoleted by EXECUTE ... USING, which is the parameterised version, because it's safer and easier. You cannot use them for the purpose you explain here, because they're server-side functions.
Imagine what happens if you get the value ');DROP SCHEMA public;-- from a malicious user. You'd produce:
insert into test values (1,'');DROP SCHEMA public;--');
which breaks down to two statements and a comment that gets ignored:
insert into test values (1,'');
DROP SCHEMA public;
--');
Whoops, there goes your database.
In postgresql if you want to insert values with ' in it then for this you have to give extra '
insert into test values (1,'user''s log');
insert into test values (2,'''my users''');
insert into test values (3,'customer''s');
you can use the postrgesql chr(int) function:
insert into test values (2,'|| chr(39)||'my users'||chr(39)||');
When I used Python to insert values into PostgreSQL, I also met the question: column "xxx" does not exist.
The I find the reason in wiki.postgresql:
PostgreSQL uses only single quotes for this (i.e. WHERE name = 'John'). Double quotes are used to quote system identifiers; field names, table names, etc. (i.e. WHERE "last name" = 'Smith').
MySQL uses ` (accent mark or backtick) to quote system identifiers, which is decidedly non-standard.
It means PostgreSQL can use only single quote for field names, table names, etc. So you can not use single quote in value.
My situation is: I want to insert values "the difference of it’s adj for sb and it's adj of sb" into PostgreSQL.
How I figure out this problem:
I replace ' with ’, and I replace " with '. Because PostgreSQL value does not support double quote.
So I think you can use following codes to insert values:
insert into test values (1,'user’s log');
insert into test values (2,'my users');
insert into test values (3,'customer’s');
If you need to get the work done inside Pg:
to_json(value)
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/functions-json.html#FUNCTIONS-JSON-TABLE
You must have to add an extra single quotes -> ' and make doubling quote them up like below examples -> ' ' is the standard way and works of course:
Wrong way: 'user's log'
Right way: 'user''s log'
problem:
insert into test values (1,'user's log');
insert into test values (2,''my users'');
insert into test values (3,'customer's');
Solutions:
insert into test values (1,'user''s log');
insert into test values (2,'''my users''');
insert into test values (3,'customer''s');
I entered the following query into my Postgres terminal, with an accidental l after the trailing double quote and before the semi-colon. I expected a syntax error, but instead I got query results:
select * from "myTable"l;
And in fact, I can put anything I want after the trailing double quote and I still don't get a syntax error:
select * from "myTable"asdkjh;
I checked what I thought would be the relevant docs for how double quoted strings should be formatted, but it didn't mention this.
So, why does this work?
The l or asdkjh is taken as a table alias.
The keyword AS to introduce an alias is optional, so you instead of from foo as x can also write from foo x.
from foox however would indeed be an error as that would be taken as a complete table name. As you have used a quoted identifier, it is clear where the identifier ends and the next identifier starts - thus no whitespace is required between the identifier and the alias.
So, from "myTable"asdkjh is identical to from "myTable" as asdkjh
However, from "myTable""some_alias" would be an error as it is taken as a single identifier - to include a double quote in a quoted identifier, you write two quotes, so "myTable""some_alias" references a table named myTable"some_alias
I asked similar question here for: hstore value with space. And get solved by user: Clodoaldo Neto. Now I have come across next case with string containing single quote.
SELECT 'k=>"name", v=>"St. Xavier's Academy"'::hstore;
I tried it by using dollar-quoted string constant by reading http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/sql-syntax-lexical.html#SQL-SYNTAX-CONSTANTS
SELECT 'k=>"name", v=>$$St. Xavier's Academy$$'::hstore;
But I couldn't get it right.
How to make postgresql hstore using strings containing single quote?
It seems like there are more such exceptions possible for this query. How to address them all at once?
You can escape the embedded single quote that same way you'd escape any other single quote inside a string literal: double it.
SELECT 'k=>"name", v=>"St. Xavier''s Academy"'::hstore;
-- ------------------------------^^
Alternatively, you could dollar quote the whole string:
SELECT $$k=>"name", v=>"St. Xavier's Academy"$$::hstore;
Whatever interface you're using to talk to PostgreSQL should be taking care of these quoting and escaping issues. If you're using manual string wrangling to build your SQL then you should be using your driver's quoting and placeholder methods.
hstore's internal parsing understands double quotes around keys:
Double-quote keys and values that include whitespace, commas, =s or >s.
Dollar quoting is, as you noted, for SQL string literals, hstore's parser doesn't know what they mean.
I need to update a record, which contains literal percent signs, using PostgreSQL in Railo. The query looks like
<cfquery>
update foo set bar = 'string with % in it %'
</cfQuery>
It throws error as ColdFusion normally interprets it as a wildcard character. I can escape it using the following query.
<cfquery>
update foo set bar = 'string with escaped \% in it \%'
</cfQuery>
However, the record now contains "\%" in the database and will be displayed on the page as "\%".
I found a documentation with an example of escaping percent sign in a SELECT. But it does not work for me: syntax error at or near "ESCAPE".
SELECT emp_discount
FROM Benefits
WHERE emp_discount LIKE '10\%'
ESCAPE '\';
Is there a better to achieve the same goal? The underlining database is PostgreSQL. Thanks!
Queryparameters escape special characters. Yet another reason to use them.