Error: Column does not exist in postgresql for update

Question

I am trying to insert a line of text into a column where that column is null. Error listed below. Any help is greatly appreciated

UPDATE public.meditech_ar_test4
SET filename = "text"
WHERE filename is null;

ERROR: column "text" does not exist: I am aware that column does not exist, I want to insert it into the field

Use just single-quotes: `'text'` – mechanical_meat Apr 21 '20 at 20:45 — mechanical_meat, Apr 21 '20 at 20:45

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 21 '20 at 21:02

3

In Postgres, double quote stand for identifiers (such as table or column names). Here, you actually want a string literal, so you need single quotes:

UPDATE public.meditech_ar_test4
SET filename = 'text'
WHERE filename is null;

Some databases (namely, MySQL), tolerate double quotes for string literals, while using other characters for identifiers (in MySQL: backticks). However in that regard Postgres follows the rules of standard SQL, which defines double quotes for identifiers. You should just take the habit of always using single quotes for string literals (most databases do support that).

edited Apr 21 '20 at 21:02

answered Apr 21 '20 at 20:58

GMB

216,147
25
84
135

The thing is... the update is sooooo finicky. Like okay, I will use single quotes for when I want to set a value in a column, but oh, you want to select a table with a weird name? Great, then use double quotes! Which means I have to use `format()` to format the string properly! – Shmack Feb 02 '22 at 19:54

Error: Column does not exist in postgresql for update

1 Answers1

Linked

Related