The documentation for SELECT is incorrect in a sense: the syntax for a

join is defined as:

from_item [ NATURAL ] join_type from_item
    [ ON join_condition | USING ( join_column_list ) ]

However, if the join_type is an INNER or OUTER join, an ON, USING, or
NATURAL clause *must* be specified (it's not optional, as that segment
of the docs suggest).

I'm not exactly sure what the best way to fix this is, so I've attached
a patch adding a FIXME comment to the relevant section of the SGML. If
anyone has any ideas on the proper way to outline join syntax, please
speak up.

Neil Conway  || PGP Key ID: DB3C29FC

diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/ref/select.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/ref/select.sgml
index 0f8a3dbcc925659a6788374ac9d01cf5941744c0..42281e5cf00084fc9b88583b065657a93500e0e9 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/src/sgml/ref/select.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/ref/select.sgml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 
 
@@ -46,6 +46,11 @@ where from_item can be:
 table_function_name ( [ argument [, ...] ] )
     AS ( column_definition_list )
 |
+
 from_item [ NATURAL ] join_type from_item
     [ ON join_condition | USING ( join_column_list ) ]