Why Does My Postgres DELETE Query Fail with 'Column Does Not Exist'?

Postgres DELETE query error: "Column does not exist"

When executing the DELETE statement in PostgreSQL, you may encounter the error "ERROR: column "column name" does not exist". This confusing error usually occurs when a variable in a query condition is enclosed in double quotes ("), which PostgreSQL interprets as a column name instead of a value.

For example, the following query results in the above error:

delete from "Tasks" where id = "fc1f56b5-ff41-43ed-b27c-39eac9354323";

The error message indicates that PostgreSQL is trying to find a column named "fc1f56b5-ff41-43ed-b27c-39eac9354323" in the "Tasks" table. However, this column does not exist.

The problem is that PostgreSQL treats anything enclosed in double quotes (") as identifiers, including table names, procedure names, and column names. In this case, due to the use of double quotes, PostgreSQL incorrectly treats the value "fc1f56b5- ff41-43ed-b27c-39eac9354323" is interpreted as a column name.

To fix this issue, make sure character constants are enclosed in single quotes (') instead of double quotes. Single quotes allow PostgreSQL to correctly recognize the specified value as a constant rather than a column name. The correct query should be:

delete from "Tasks" where id = 'fc1f56b5-ff41-43ed-b27c-39eac9354323';

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