Adjust assorted hint messages that list all valid options.

Instead of listing all valid options, we now try to provide one
that looks similar.  Since this may be useful elsewhere, this
change introduces a new set of functions that can be reused for
similar purposes.

Author: Nathan Bossart <nathandbossart@gmail.com>
Discussion: https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/flat/b1f9f399-3a1a-b554-283f-4ae7f34608e2@enterprisedb.com

contrib/dblink/dblink.c

@@ -2008,27 +2008,32 @@ dblink_fdw_validator(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
 		{
 			/*
 			 * Unknown option, or invalid option for the context specified, so
-			 * complain about it.  Provide a hint with list of valid options
-			 * for the context.
+			 * complain about it.  Provide a hint with a valid option that
+			 * looks similar, if there is one.
 			 */
-			StringInfoData buf;
 			const PQconninfoOption *opt;
+			const char *closest_match;
+			ClosestMatchState match_state;
+			bool		has_valid_options = false;
 
-			initStringInfo(&buf);
+			initClosestMatch(&match_state, def->defname, 4);
 			for (opt = options; opt->keyword; opt++)
 			{
 				if (is_valid_dblink_option(options, opt->keyword, context))
-					appendStringInfo(&buf, "%s%s",
-									 (buf.len > 0) ? ", " : "",
-									 opt->keyword);
+				{
+					has_valid_options = true;
+					updateClosestMatch(&match_state, opt->keyword);
+				}
 			}
+
+			closest_match = getClosestMatch(&match_state);
 			ereport(ERROR,
 					(errcode(ERRCODE_FDW_OPTION_NAME_NOT_FOUND),
 					 errmsg("invalid option \"%s\"", def->defname),
-					 buf.len > 0
-					 ? errhint("Valid options in this context are: %s",
-							   buf.data)
-					 : errhint("There are no valid options in this context.")));
+					 has_valid_options ? closest_match ?
+					 errhint("Perhaps you meant the option \"%s\".",
+							 closest_match) : 0 :
+					 errhint("There are no valid options in this context.")));
 		}
 	}
 

contrib/dblink/expected/dblink.out

@@ -897,7 +897,6 @@ $d$;
 CREATE USER MAPPING FOR public SERVER fdtest
   OPTIONS (server 'localhost');  -- fail, can't specify server here
 ERROR:  invalid option "server"
-HINT:  Valid options in this context are: user, password, sslpassword
 CREATE USER MAPPING FOR public SERVER fdtest OPTIONS (user :'USER');
 GRANT USAGE ON FOREIGN SERVER fdtest TO regress_dblink_user;
 GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION dblink_connect_u(text, text) TO regress_dblink_user;

contrib/file_fdw/expected/file_fdw.out

@@ -166,7 +166,6 @@ ERROR:  invalid option "force_not_null"
 HINT:  There are no valid options in this context.
 CREATE FOREIGN TABLE tbl () SERVER file_server OPTIONS (force_not_null '*'); -- ERROR
 ERROR:  invalid option "force_not_null"
-HINT:  Valid options in this context are: filename, program, format, header, delimiter, quote, escape, null, encoding
 -- force_null is not allowed to be specified at any foreign object level:
 ALTER FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER file_fdw OPTIONS (ADD force_null '*'); -- ERROR
 ERROR:  invalid option "force_null"
@@ -179,7 +178,6 @@ ERROR:  invalid option "force_null"
 HINT:  There are no valid options in this context.
 CREATE FOREIGN TABLE tbl () SERVER file_server OPTIONS (force_null '*'); -- ERROR
 ERROR:  invalid option "force_null"
-HINT:  Valid options in this context are: filename, program, format, header, delimiter, quote, escape, null, encoding
 -- basic query tests
 SELECT * FROM agg_text WHERE b > 10.0 ORDER BY a;
   a  |   b    

contrib/file_fdw/file_fdw.c

@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@
 #include "utils/memutils.h"
 #include "utils/rel.h"
 #include "utils/sampling.h"
+#include "utils/varlena.h"
 
 PG_MODULE_MAGIC;
 
@@ -214,27 +215,32 @@ file_fdw_validator(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
 		if (!is_valid_option(def->defname, catalog))
 		{
 			const struct FileFdwOption *opt;
-			StringInfoData buf;
+			const char *closest_match;
+			ClosestMatchState match_state;
+			bool		has_valid_options = false;
 
 			/*
 			 * Unknown option specified, complain about it. Provide a hint
-			 * with list of valid options for the object.
+			 * with a valid option that looks similar, if there is one.
 			 */
-			initStringInfo(&buf);
+			initClosestMatch(&match_state, def->defname, 4);
 			for (opt = valid_options; opt->optname; opt++)
 			{
 				if (catalog == opt->optcontext)
-					appendStringInfo(&buf, "%s%s", (buf.len > 0) ? ", " : "",
-									 opt->optname);
+				{
+					has_valid_options = true;
+					updateClosestMatch(&match_state, opt->optname);
+				}
 			}
 
+			closest_match = getClosestMatch(&match_state);
 			ereport(ERROR,
 					(errcode(ERRCODE_FDW_INVALID_OPTION_NAME),
 					 errmsg("invalid option \"%s\"", def->defname),
-					 buf.len > 0
-					 ? errhint("Valid options in this context are: %s",
-							   buf.data)
-					 : errhint("There are no valid options in this context.")));
+					 has_valid_options ? closest_match ?
+					 errhint("Perhaps you meant the option \"%s\".",
+							 closest_match) : 0 :
+					 errhint("There are no valid options in this context.")));
 		}
 
 		/*

contrib/postgres_fdw/expected/postgres_fdw.out

@@ -188,7 +188,6 @@ ALTER USER MAPPING FOR public SERVER testserver1
 ALTER USER MAPPING FOR public SERVER testserver1
 	OPTIONS (ADD sslmode 'require');
 ERROR:  invalid option "sslmode"
-HINT:  Valid options in this context are: user, password, sslpassword, password_required, sslcert, sslkey
 -- But we can add valid ones fine
 ALTER USER MAPPING FOR public SERVER testserver1
 	OPTIONS (ADD sslpassword 'dummy');
@@ -9706,7 +9705,7 @@ DO $d$
     END;
 $d$;
 ERROR:  invalid option "password"
-HINT:  Valid options in this context are: service, passfile, channel_binding, connect_timeout, dbname, host, hostaddr, port, options, application_name, keepalives, keepalives_idle, keepalives_interval, keepalives_count, tcp_user_timeout, sslmode, sslcompression, sslcert, sslkey, sslrootcert, sslcrl, sslcrldir, sslsni, requirepeer, ssl_min_protocol_version, ssl_max_protocol_version, gssencmode, krbsrvname, gsslib, target_session_attrs, use_remote_estimate, fdw_startup_cost, fdw_tuple_cost, extensions, updatable, truncatable, fetch_size, batch_size, async_capable, parallel_commit, keep_connections
+HINT:  Perhaps you meant the option "passfile".
 CONTEXT:  SQL statement "ALTER SERVER loopback_nopw OPTIONS (ADD password 'dummypw')"
 PL/pgSQL function inline_code_block line 3 at EXECUTE
 -- If we add a password for our user mapping instead, we should get a different

contrib/postgres_fdw/option.c

@@ -90,26 +90,31 @@ postgres_fdw_validator(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
 		{
 			/*
 			 * Unknown option specified, complain about it. Provide a hint
-			 * with list of valid options for the object.
+			 * with a valid option that looks similar, if there is one.
 			 */
 			PgFdwOption *opt;
-			StringInfoData buf;
+			const char *closest_match;
+			ClosestMatchState match_state;
+			bool		has_valid_options = false;
 
-			initStringInfo(&buf);
+			initClosestMatch(&match_state, def->defname, 4);
 			for (opt = postgres_fdw_options; opt->keyword; opt++)
 			{
 				if (catalog == opt->optcontext)
-					appendStringInfo(&buf, "%s%s", (buf.len > 0) ? ", " : "",
-									 opt->keyword);
+				{
+					has_valid_options = true;
+					updateClosestMatch(&match_state, opt->keyword);
+				}
 			}
 
+			closest_match = getClosestMatch(&match_state);
 			ereport(ERROR,
 					(errcode(ERRCODE_FDW_INVALID_OPTION_NAME),
 					 errmsg("invalid option \"%s\"", def->defname),
-					 buf.len > 0
-					 ? errhint("Valid options in this context are: %s",
-							   buf.data)
-					 : errhint("There are no valid options in this context.")));
+					 has_valid_options ? closest_match ?
+					 errhint("Perhaps you meant the option \"%s\".",
+							 closest_match) : 0 :
+					 errhint("There are no valid options in this context.")));
 		}
 
 		/*

src/backend/foreign/foreign.c

@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 #include "utils/memutils.h"
 #include "utils/rel.h"
 #include "utils/syscache.h"
+#include "utils/varlena.h"
 
 
 /*
@@ -621,25 +622,32 @@ postgresql_fdw_validator(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
 		if (!is_conninfo_option(def->defname, catalog))
 		{
 			const struct ConnectionOption *opt;
-			StringInfoData buf;
+			const char *closest_match;
+			ClosestMatchState match_state;
+			bool		has_valid_options = false;
 
 			/*
 			 * Unknown option specified, complain about it. Provide a hint
-			 * with list of valid options for the object.
+			 * with a valid option that looks similar, if there is one.
 			 */
-			initStringInfo(&buf);
+			initClosestMatch(&match_state, def->defname, 4);
 			for (opt = libpq_conninfo_options; opt->optname; opt++)
+			{
 				if (catalog == opt->optcontext)
-					appendStringInfo(&buf, "%s%s", (buf.len > 0) ? ", " : "",
-									 opt->optname);
+				{
+					has_valid_options = true;
+					updateClosestMatch(&match_state, opt->optname);
+				}
+			}
 
+			closest_match = getClosestMatch(&match_state);
 			ereport(ERROR,
 					(errcode(ERRCODE_SYNTAX_ERROR),
 					 errmsg("invalid option \"%s\"", def->defname),
-					 buf.len > 0
-					 ? errhint("Valid options in this context are: %s",
-							   buf.data)
-					 : errhint("There are no valid options in this context.")));
+					 has_valid_options ? closest_match ?
+					 errhint("Perhaps you meant the option \"%s\".",
+							 closest_match) : 0 :
+					 errhint("There are no valid options in this context.")));
 
 			PG_RETURN_BOOL(false);
 		}

src/backend/utils/adt/varlena.c

@@ -6197,6 +6197,88 @@ rest_of_char_same(const char *s1, const char *s2, int len)
 #include "levenshtein.c"
 
 
+/*
+ * The following *ClosestMatch() functions can be used to determine whether a
+ * user-provided string resembles any known valid values, which is useful for
+ * providing hints in log messages, among other things.  Use these functions
+ * like so:
+ *
+ *		initClosestMatch(&state, source_string, max_distance);
+ *
+ *		for (int i = 0; i < num_valid_strings; i++)
+ *			updateClosestMatch(&state, valid_strings[i]);
+ *
+ *		closestMatch = getClosestMatch(&state);
+ */
+
+/*
+ * Initialize the given state with the source string and maximum Levenshtein
+ * distance to consider.
+ */
+void
+initClosestMatch(ClosestMatchState *state, const char *source, int max_d)
+{
+	Assert(state);
+	Assert(max_d >= 0);
+
+	state->source = source;
+	state->min_d = -1;
+	state->max_d = max_d;
+	state->match = NULL;
+}
+
+/*
+ * If the candidate string is a closer match than the current one saved (or
+ * there is no match saved), save it as the closest match.
+ *
+ * If the source or candidate string is NULL, empty, or too long, this function
+ * takes no action.  Likewise, if the Levenshtein distance exceeds the maximum
+ * allowed or more than half the characters are different, no action is taken.
+ */
+void
+updateClosestMatch(ClosestMatchState *state, const char *candidate)
+{
+	int			dist;
+
+	Assert(state);
+
+	if (state->source == NULL || state->source[0] == '\0' ||
+		candidate == NULL || candidate[0] == '\0')
+		return;
+
+	/*
+	 * To avoid ERROR-ing, we check the lengths here instead of setting
+	 * 'trusted' to false in the call to varstr_levenshtein_less_equal().
+	 */
+	if (strlen(state->source) > MAX_LEVENSHTEIN_STRLEN ||
+		strlen(candidate) > MAX_LEVENSHTEIN_STRLEN)
+		return;
+
+	dist = varstr_levenshtein_less_equal(state->source, strlen(state->source),
+										 candidate, strlen(candidate), 1, 1, 1,
+										 state->max_d, true);
+	if (dist <= state->max_d &&
+		dist <= strlen(state->source) / 2 &&
+		(state->min_d == -1 || dist < state->min_d))
+	{
+		state->min_d = dist;
+		state->match = candidate;
+	}
+}
+
+/*
+ * Return the closest match.  If no suitable candidates were provided via
+ * updateClosestMatch(), return NULL.
+ */
+const char *
+getClosestMatch(ClosestMatchState *state)
+{
+	Assert(state);
+
+	return state->match;
+}
+
+
 /*
  * Unicode support
  */

src/include/utils/varlena.h

@@ -38,4 +38,16 @@ extern text *replace_text_regexp(text *src_text, text *pattern_text,
 								 int cflags, Oid collation,
 								 int search_start, int n);
 
+typedef struct ClosestMatchState
+{
+	const char *source;
+	int			min_d;
+	int			max_d;
+	const char *match;
+}			ClosestMatchState;
+
+extern void initClosestMatch(ClosestMatchState *state, const char *source, int max_d);
+extern void updateClosestMatch(ClosestMatchState *state, const char *candidate);
+extern const char *getClosestMatch(ClosestMatchState *state);
+
 #endif

src/test/regress/expected/foreign_data.out

@@ -329,7 +329,6 @@ CREATE SERVER s6 VERSION '16.0' FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER foo OPTIONS (host 'a', dbna
 CREATE SERVER s7 TYPE 'oracle' VERSION '17.0' FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER foo OPTIONS (host 'a', dbname 'b');
 CREATE SERVER s8 FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER postgresql OPTIONS (foo '1'); -- ERROR
 ERROR:  invalid option "foo"
-HINT:  Valid options in this context are: authtype, service, connect_timeout, dbname, host, hostaddr, port, tty, options, requiressl, sslmode, gsslib
 CREATE SERVER s8 FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER postgresql OPTIONS (host 'localhost', dbname 's8db');
 \des+
                                                              List of foreign servers
@@ -440,7 +439,6 @@ ERROR:  permission denied for foreign-data wrapper foo
 RESET ROLE;
 ALTER SERVER s8 OPTIONS (foo '1');                          -- ERROR option validation
 ERROR:  invalid option "foo"
-HINT:  Valid options in this context are: authtype, service, connect_timeout, dbname, host, hostaddr, port, tty, options, requiressl, sslmode, gsslib
 ALTER SERVER s8 OPTIONS (connect_timeout '30', SET dbname 'db1', DROP host);
 SET ROLE regress_test_role;
 ALTER SERVER s1 OWNER TO regress_test_indirect;             -- ERROR
@@ -597,7 +595,7 @@ ERROR:  user mapping for "regress_foreign_data_user" already exists for server "
 CREATE USER MAPPING FOR public SERVER s4 OPTIONS ("this mapping" 'is public');
 CREATE USER MAPPING FOR user SERVER s8 OPTIONS (username 'test', password 'secret');    -- ERROR
 ERROR:  invalid option "username"
-HINT:  Valid options in this context are: user, password
+HINT:  Perhaps you meant the option "user".
 CREATE USER MAPPING FOR user SERVER s8 OPTIONS (user 'test', password 'secret');
 ALTER SERVER s5 OWNER TO regress_test_role;
 ALTER SERVER s6 OWNER TO regress_test_indirect;
@@ -636,7 +634,7 @@ ALTER USER MAPPING FOR public SERVER s5 OPTIONS (gotcha 'true');            -- E
 ERROR:  user mapping for "public" does not exist for server "s5"
 ALTER USER MAPPING FOR current_user SERVER s8 OPTIONS (username 'test');    -- ERROR
 ERROR:  invalid option "username"
-HINT:  Valid options in this context are: user, password
+HINT:  Perhaps you meant the option "user".
 ALTER USER MAPPING FOR current_user SERVER s8 OPTIONS (DROP user, SET password 'public');
 SET ROLE regress_test_role;
 ALTER USER MAPPING FOR current_user SERVER s5 OPTIONS (ADD modified '1');