Improve column alias generation in explorations

[wlockwood]

Description

I have two tables: Manufacturer and Family. Family is connected to Manufacturer via FK ManufacturerId. When I add Family.Name to the exploration, instead of a column name like family_name, Mathesar comes up with manufacturer_name_1.

To Reproduce

Create a table and a second table with a many-to-one relationship to the first table. Create an exploration with columns from both tables.

Environment

• Mathesar version 0.20

[seancolsen]

Thanks for reporting this, @wlockwood. I agree this is a problem.

I've re-classified this as "enhancement" instead of "bug". Probably it's a bit borderline. We have some logic to automatically generate a name for exploration columns. That logic is just not very good. It's especially bad for an example like this where both tables have name columns, hence the _1 suffix. Generating unique names for exploration columns isn't necessarily straightforward. But, yes, we should do better!

In the mean time, I wonder if you're aware that you can rename columns via the right sidebar:

[wlockwood]

In the mean time, I wonder if you're aware that you can rename columns via the right sidebar:

Yep! That's what I've been doing, I just wanted to report the issue instead of quietly bemoaning it.

[seancolsen]

wanted to report the issue instead of quietly bemoaning it.

Wonderful! Please keep the reports coming!