Paolo,

> Is there a performance reason, future (un)support, cleaniness, ...
> to  switch from "time_iso   char(16)      NOT NULL,"
> to "time_iso TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT 0," ??

> I can't see a good reason, except for a more understandable DB
> maintenance query.

Yes, that is one. The other is that with PostgreSQL it is hard
to deal with Unix numeric timestamps but easy with with TIMESTAMPs,
so we provide both: the numeric and an ASCII representation and let
admins decide which they like best.

Gary V writes:
> My impression is ... that msgs.time_iso was originally
> created with the assumption that a field like that may be used at some
> time in the future and it would be better to have it and not need it
> than to need it and not have it.
> It looks like PostgreSQL later took advantage of its existence.

Right on both accounts.

> I think time_iso char(16)
> is not really of much use and ends up being a a kind of placeholder.

It can still be used as a sort key, if one wants, and manually specifying
a date/time (e.g. in a SELECT) is still an option, if some database
can not do better. Time calculations may not be available, but other that
that the char(16) may still be useful as a last resort, or to include
it in reports.

> I would guess that indexing
> on both would not be a benefit so I'm guessing you would index on one
> or the other, and set up your scripts to use the one you choose to index.

Right.

  Mark

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