Bug #68049 ELT() documentation is confusing

• Submitted: 8 Jan 2013 18:23
• Modified: 29 Jan 2013 23:52
• Reporter: Baron Schwartz (Basic Quality Contributor)
• Status: Closed
• Category: MySQL Server: Documentation
• Severity: S3 (Non-critical)
• Version: 5.5.30, all
• OS: Any
• Assigned to: Paul DuBois
• CPU Architecture: Any

[8 Jan 2013 18:23] Baron Schwartz

Description:
The documentation for ELT() takes too many brain-CPU-cycles to parse.

How to repeat:
Read the docs at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/string-functions.html#function_elt:

Returns str1 if N = 1, str2 if N = 2, and so on. Returns NULL if N is less than 1 or greater than the number of arguments. ELT() is the complement of FIELD().

Suggested fix:
Change the documentation to something more like the following:

Returns the Nth element of the list of strings (ELT is an abbreviation for ELEMENT). Returns str1 if N = 1, str2 if N = 2, and so on. Returns NULL if N is less than 1 or greater than the number of arguments. ELT() is the complement of FIELD().

[11 Jan 2013 13:22] Sveta Smirnova

Thank you for the report.

Verified as described.

[29 Jan 2013 23:52] Paul DuBois

Thank you for your bug report. This issue has been addressed in the documentation. The updated documentation will appear on our website shortly, and will be included in the next release of the relevant products.

ELT() returns the Nth element of the list of strings: str1 if N = 1,
str2 if N = 2, and so on. Returns NULL if N is less than 1 or greater
than the number of arguments. ELT() is the complement of FIELD().