How to keep comments inside a view definition with PostgreSQL?

Question

I need to keep the comments I add inside a SQL query when I create views from complex queries, in order to come back to views definition more easily. Within pgAdminIII, when I create a view and then consult the view definition, the comments are deleted and indentation completely revised... Is there a way to change this behaviour?

View creation:

CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW public.v_test AS 

-- Count number of null lines within table 'test'
(SELECT * FROM public.test WHERE client IS NULL);

View definition after creation, as displayed in pgAdminIII:

-- View: v_test

-- DROP VIEW v_test;

CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW v_test AS 
 SELECT test.gid,
    test.client
   FROM test
  WHERE test.client IS NULL;

ALTER TABLE v_test
  OWNER TO postgres;

Thanks for help!

Answer 1

No, Postgres saves views as parse trees, so it does not remember whitespace or comments.

However, if you really need it, functions can remember comments.

Answer 2

Postgres doesn't store a view definition as is, hence you cannot store comments this way. Use the comment command:

create view my_view as select 1;
comment on view my_view is 'It is my view';

select obj_description('my_view'::regclass);

 obj_description 
-----------------
 It is my view
(1 row)

You can see the comment in PgAdmin3:

-- View: public.my_view

-- DROP VIEW public.my_view;

CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW public.my_view AS 
 SELECT 1;

ALTER TABLE public.my_view
  OWNER TO postgres;
COMMENT ON VIEW public.my_view
  IS 'it is my view';