The user comes up usually in the form username=# in the console once you enter psql into the terminal. But then I noticed it said username-# where the equal sign was replaced with a hyphen but it still seemed to perform the same way.
I know it's a simple question but I'd still like to know. Does this change in symbol mean anything in particular?
It's not username, it's the name of the database you're connected to. Usually each user has a private database, and psql connects to it by default.
The - means you're in the middle of writing an SQL query, or "ending semicolon missing":
test=# select 1+1
test-# ;
?column?
----------
2
(1 row)
Also, when you have unmatched delimiters, those are shown:
test=# select (1+1
test(# )
test-# ;
?column?
----------
2
(1 row)