Add type conversion discussion.
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Bruce Momjian
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@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ From tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us Sun May 14 17:30:56 2000
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@ -757,3 +757,160 @@ Comments?
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regards, tom lane
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From pgsql-general-owner+M18949=candle.pha.pa.us=pgman@postgresql.org Sat Dec 29 15:47:47 2001
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Sat, 29 Dec 2001 15:36:29 -0500 (EST)
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From: Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
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Message-ID: <200112292036.fBTKaTg04256@candle.pha.pa.us>
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Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Casting Varchar to Numeric
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In-Reply-To: <20011206150158.O28880-100000@megazone23.bigpanda.com>
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To: Stephan Szabo <sszabo@megazone23.bigpanda.com>
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Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2001 15:36:29 -0500 (EST)
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cc: Andy Marden <amarden@usa.net>, pgsql-general@postgresql.org
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Status: OR
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> On Mon, 3 Dec 2001, Andy Marden wrote:
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>
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> > Martijn,
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> >
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> > It does work (believe it or not). I've now tried the method you mention
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> > below - that also works and is much nicer. I can't believe that PostgreSQL
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> > can't work this out. Surely implementing an algorithm that understands that
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> > if you can go from a ->b and b->c then you can certainly go from a->c. If
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>
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> It's more complicated than that (and postgres does some of this but not
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> all), for example the cast text->float8->numeric potentially loses
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> precision and should probably not be an automatic cast for that reason.
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>
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> > this is viewed as too complex a task for the internals - at least a diagram
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> > or some way of understanding how you should go from a->c would be immensely
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> > helpful wouldn't it! Daunting for anyone picking up the database and trying
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> > to do something simple(!)
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>
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> There may be a need for documentation on this. Would you like to write
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> some ;)
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OK, I ran some tests:
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test=> create table test (x text);
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CREATE
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test=> insert into test values ('323');
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INSERT 5122745 1
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test=> select cast (x as numeric) from test;
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ERROR: Cannot cast type 'text' to 'numeric'
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I can see problems with automatically casting numeric to text because
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you have to guess the desired format, but going from text to numeric
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seems quite easy to do. Is there a reason we don't do it?
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I can cast to integer and float8 fine:
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test=> select cast ( x as integer) from test;
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?column?
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----------
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323
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(1 row)
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test=> select cast ( x as float8) from test;
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?column?
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----------
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323
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(1 row)
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--
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Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us
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pgman@candle.pha.pa.us | (610) 853-3000
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+ If your life is a hard drive, | 830 Blythe Avenue
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+ Christ can be your backup. | Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026
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From pgsql-general-owner+M18951=candle.pha.pa.us=pgman@postgresql.org Sat Dec 29 19:10:38 2001
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Sat, 29 Dec 2001 18:07:57 -0500 (EST)
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To: Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
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cc: Stephan Szabo <sszabo@megazone23.bigpanda.com>,
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Andy Marden <amarden@usa.net>, pgsql-general@postgresql.org
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Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Casting Varchar to Numeric
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In-Reply-To: <200112292036.fBTKaTg04256@candle.pha.pa.us>
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References: <200112292036.fBTKaTg04256@candle.pha.pa.us>
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Comments: In-reply-to Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
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message dated "Sat, 29 Dec 2001 15:36:29 -0500"
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Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2001 18:07:57 -0500
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Message-ID: <20242.1009667277@sss.pgh.pa.us>
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From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
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Precedence: bulk
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Sender: pgsql-general-owner@postgresql.org
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Status: OR
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Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes:
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> I can see problems with automatically casting numeric to text because
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> you have to guess the desired format, but going from text to numeric
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> seems quite easy to do. Is there a reason we don't do it?
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I do not think it's a good idea to have implicit casts between text and
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everything under the sun, because that essentially destroys the type
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checking system. What we need (see previous discussion) is a flag in
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pg_proc that says whether a type conversion function may be invoked
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implicitly or not. I've got no problem with offering text(numeric) and
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numeric(text) functions that are invoked by explicit function calls or
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casts --- I just don't want the system trying to use them to make
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sense of a bogus query.
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> I can cast to integer and float8 fine:
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I don't believe that those should be available as implicit casts either.
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They are, at the moment:
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regression=# select 33 || 44.0;
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?column?
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----------
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3344
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(1 row)
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Ugh.
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regards, tom lane
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