sql literals may be used as column attributes

History.txt

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
   * AST is now Enumerable
   * AND nodes are now n-ary nodes
+  * SQL Literals may be used as Attribute names
 
 * Deprecations
 

lib/arel.rb

@@ -35,6 +35,10 @@ module Arel
   def self.sql raw_sql
     Arel::Nodes::SqlLiteral.new raw_sql
   end
+
+  def self.star
+    sql '*'
+  end
   ## Convenience Alias
   Node = Arel::Nodes::Node
 end

lib/arel/table.rb

@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ def columns
     end
 
     def [] name
-      ::Arel::Attribute.new self, name.to_sym
+      ::Arel::Attribute.new self, name
     end
 
     def select_manager

lib/arel/visitors/to_sql.rb

@@ -318,26 +318,29 @@ def visit_Arel_Attributes_Attribute o
       alias :visit_Arel_Attributes_Time :visit_Arel_Attributes_Attribute
       alias :visit_Arel_Attributes_Boolean :visit_Arel_Attributes_Attribute
 
-      def visit_Fixnum o; o end
-      alias :visit_Arel_Nodes_SqlLiteral :visit_Fixnum
-      alias :visit_Arel_SqlLiteral :visit_Fixnum # This is deprecated
-      alias :visit_Bignum :visit_Fixnum
-
-      def visit_String o; quote(o, @last_column) end
-
-      alias :visit_ActiveSupport_Multibyte_Chars :visit_String
-      alias :visit_BigDecimal :visit_String
-      alias :visit_Date :visit_String
-      alias :visit_DateTime :visit_String
-      alias :visit_FalseClass :visit_String
-      alias :visit_Float :visit_String
-      alias :visit_Hash :visit_String
-      alias :visit_Symbol :visit_String
-      alias :visit_Time :visit_String
-      alias :visit_TrueClass :visit_String
-      alias :visit_NilClass :visit_String
-      alias :visit_ActiveSupport_StringInquirer :visit_String
-      alias :visit_Class :visit_String
+      def literal o; o end
+
+      alias :visit_Arel_Nodes_SqlLiteral :literal
+      alias :visit_Arel_SqlLiteral       :literal # This is deprecated
+      alias :visit_Bignum                :literal
+      alias :visit_Fixnum                :literal
+
+      def quoted o; quote(o, @last_column) end
+
+      alias :visit_ActiveSupport_Multibyte_Chars :quoted
+      alias :visit_ActiveSupport_StringInquirer  :quoted
+      alias :visit_BigDecimal                    :quoted
+      alias :visit_Class                         :quoted
+      alias :visit_Date                          :quoted
+      alias :visit_DateTime                      :quoted
+      alias :visit_FalseClass                    :quoted
+      alias :visit_Float                         :quoted
+      alias :visit_Hash                          :quoted
+      alias :visit_NilClass                      :quoted
+      alias :visit_String                        :quoted
+      alias :visit_Symbol                        :quoted
+      alias :visit_Time                          :quoted
+      alias :visit_TrueClass                     :quoted
 
       def visit_Array o
         o.empty? ? 'NULL' : o.map { |x| visit x }.join(', ')
@@ -352,7 +355,7 @@ def quote_table_name name
       end
 
       def quote_column_name name
-        @quoted_columns[name] ||= @connection.quote_column_name(name)
+        @quoted_columns[name] ||= Arel::Nodes::SqlLiteral === name ? name : @connection.quote_column_name(name)
       end
     end
   end

test/visitors/test_to_sql.rb

@@ -5,7 +5,14 @@ module Visitors
     describe 'the to_sql visitor' do
       before do
         @visitor = ToSql.new Table.engine
-        @attr = Table.new(:users)[:id]
+        @table = Table.new(:users)
+        @attr = @table[:id]
+      end
+
+      it 'should not quote sql literals' do
+        node = @table[Arel.star]
+        sql = @visitor.accept node
+        sql.must_be_like '"users".*'
       end
 
       describe 'equality' do