PostgreSQL forces lowercase names?

Question

Just started to learn PostgreSQL 9.1 on linux through C and libpq.
For now I check connection, connect, create database, create table and other basic stuff. But I noted that during table creating PQ converts my database name to lowercase. Then I see that table names and field names are also forced to lowercase. Howewer, when I try to connect with uppercase (original) name of database I get warning that asked database don't exist.

Best of all will be that all names stays as written. Is this possible to get with some simple method/setting?

For example:

M_122_KL0001_2011_001_0100001

will be created as m_122_kl0001_2011_001_0100001 what is not wanted for me.
Same happens with table names and field names.

Manager

Answer 1

This is the default behavior of Postgres.

If you want upper- or mixed-case, you can quote the identifier e.g.:

createdb "M_122_KL0001_2011_001_0100001"

Collusion

Yes! Thank you wery much. Here would be plenty of 'escaping strings" :) – Manager

Would it be smarter to keep "lowercase" rules? – Manager

In my opinion, yes, it makes life easier to keep everything lowercase. But if you have some reason to use upper- or mixed-case then at least now you know how it is supported. – Collusion

Is anyone aware of the reasoning behind this default behaviour? – Lazaretto

@Basic: I'm not 100%, but my guess is that it makes identifiers case insensitive without too much of a performance hit. – Flavorsome

@Denis Sorry, I was unclear. The ORM does its job properly. Issuing SQL commands directly for maintenance/updates is where the pain lies. Anyway, I'll delete my comments to avoid clutter on this answer – Lazaretto

btw you need it also by droping postgres database with uppercase name, otherwise it won't be find. DROP DATABASE "FOLOLO"; – Moisten