Doc: improve description of trim() and related functions.

tglsfdc · tglsfdc · commit 213c0f2d7880 · 2016-11-30T13:34:13.000-05:00
Per bug #14441 from Mark Pether, the documentation could be misread, mainly because some of the examples failed to show what happens with a multicharacter "characters to trim" string. Also, while the text description in most of these entries was fairly clear that the "characters" argument is a set of characters not a substring to match, some of them used variant wording that was a bit less clear. trim() itself suffered from both deficiencies and was thus pretty misinterpretable. Also fix failure to explain which of LEADING/TRAILING/BOTH is the default. Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/20161130011710.6539.53657@wrigleys.postgresql.org
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/func.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/func.sgml
@@ -1534,11 +1534,12 @@
        </entry>
        <entry><type>text</type></entry>
        <entry>
-        Remove the longest string containing only the
+        Remove the longest string containing only characters from
         <parameter>characters</parameter> (a space by default) from the
-        start/end/both ends of the <parameter>string</parameter>
+        start, end, or both ends (<literal>both</> is the default)
+        of <parameter>string</parameter>
        </entry>
-       <entry><literal>trim(both 'x' from 'xTomxx')</literal></entry>
+       <entry><literal>trim(both 'xyz' from 'yxTomxx')</literal></entry>
        <entry><literal>Tom</literal></entry>
       </row>
 
@@ -1547,14 +1548,14 @@
         <literal><function>trim(<optional>leading | trailing
         | both</optional> <optional>from</optional>
         <parameter>string</parameter>
-        <optional><parameter>, characters</parameter></optional>
+        <optional>, <parameter>characters</parameter></optional>
         )</function></literal>
        </entry>
        <entry><type>text</type></entry>
        <entry>
-        Non-standard version of <function>trim()</>
+        Non-standard syntax for <function>trim()</>
        </entry>
-       <entry><literal>trim(both from 'xTomxx', 'x')</literal></entry>
+       <entry><literal>trim(both from 'yxTomxx', 'xyz')</literal></entry>
        <entry><literal>Tom</literal></entry>
       </row>
 
@@ -1626,7 +1627,7 @@
         in <parameter>characters</parameter> (a space by default)
         from the start and end of <parameter>string</parameter>
        </entry>
-       <entry><literal>btrim('xyxtrimyyx', 'xy')</literal></entry>
+       <entry><literal>btrim('xyxtrimyyx', 'xyz')</literal></entry>
        <entry><literal>trim</literal></entry>
       </row>
 
@@ -1895,8 +1896,8 @@
         <parameter>characters</parameter> (a space by default) from the start of
         <parameter>string</parameter>
        </entry>
-       <entry><literal>ltrim('zzzytrim', 'xyz')</literal></entry>
-       <entry><literal>trim</literal></entry>
+       <entry><literal>ltrim('zzzytest', 'xyz')</literal></entry>
+       <entry><literal>test</literal></entry>
       </row>
 
       <row>
@@ -2218,8 +2219,8 @@
         <parameter>characters</parameter> (a space by default) from the end of
         <parameter>string</parameter>
        </entry>
-       <entry><literal>rtrim('trimxxxx', 'x')</literal></entry>
-       <entry><literal>trim</literal></entry>
+       <entry><literal>rtrim('testxxzx', 'xyz')</literal></entry>
+       <entry><literal>test</literal></entry>
       </row>
 
       <row>
@@ -3484,11 +3485,11 @@ SELECT format('Testing %3$s, %2$s, %s', 'one', 'two', 'three');
        </entry>
        <entry><type>bytea</type></entry>
        <entry>
-        Remove the longest string containing only the bytes in
+        Remove the longest string containing only bytes appearing in
         <parameter>bytes</parameter> from the start
         and end of <parameter>string</parameter>
        </entry>
-       <entry><literal>trim(E'\\000'::bytea from E'\\000Tom\\000'::bytea)</literal></entry>
+       <entry><literal>trim(E'\\000\\001'::bytea from E'\\000Tom\\001'::bytea)</literal></entry>
        <entry><literal>Tom</literal></entry>
       </row>
      </tbody>
@@ -3527,11 +3528,11 @@ SELECT format('Testing %3$s, %2$s, %s', 'one', 'two', 'three');
        </entry>
        <entry><type>bytea</type></entry>
        <entry>
-        Remove the longest string consisting only of bytes
-        in <parameter>bytes</parameter> from the start and end of
+        Remove the longest string containing only bytes appearing in
+        <parameter>bytes</parameter> from the start and end of
         <parameter>string</parameter>
       </entry>
-      <entry><literal>btrim(E'\\000trim\\000'::bytea, E'\\000'::bytea)</literal></entry>
+      <entry><literal>btrim(E'\\000trim\\001'::bytea, E'\\000\\001'::bytea)</literal></entry>
       <entry><literal>trim</literal></entry>
      </row>
 
