Feature request: InfluxQL comments

[rw]

Proposal: Comments in InfluxQL.

Current behavior: Comments are not supported.

Desired behavior: Allow line-oriented comments in InfluxQL. Example:

# This query computes a bar from foo.
select bar from foo

Use case: When performing data analysis, I end up using scripting pipelines that look like this:

cat my_query.infuxql | influx > output.txt

Inside my_query.influxql I have no way to document the queries (and now, subqueries). Comments would increase maintainability.

[mark-rushakoff]

I've found myself reaching for the -- line comment on a few occasions. It looks like many other SQL variants support /* */ block comments, but I don't know whether supporting block comments would require us to add support for multi-line commands.

[jsternberg]

We technically already have multiline commands. Whitespace is mostly ignored so you can split a command between multiple lines pretty easily (although the CLI does not support it, but that's different than the server not supporting it).

I think this should be fairly easy to do and is a nice little feature. Thoughts @pauldix?

[jsternberg]

Also, what's the settled syntax for this? -- for single line comments and /* */ for multiline comments? Should we support nested multiline comments such as /* /* */ */? I vote no on the latter, but I thought I would bring it up anyway as some programming languages like D support that.

[mark-rushakoff]

Agreed, no need to support nested multiline comments. Supporting `--` for single line and `/* */` for multiline seems sufficient to me.

…

On Mon, Feb 27, 2017 at 8:45 AM, Jonathan A. Sternberg < ***@***.***> wrote: Also, what's the settled syntax for this? -- for single line comments and /* */ for multiline comments? Should we support nested multiline comments such as /* /* */ */? I vote no on the latter, but I thought I would bring it up anyway as some programming languages like D support that. — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#8025 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AARvV50cbNr3q6KAFCm-_WmptGt7mqsMks5rgv2MgaJpZM4MEr4f> .

[pauldix]

LGTM. Although I am wondering if people will also try // for single line and get confused since we support /* */ for multi-line and generally if you support the latter, you support the former.