> On 08-Apr-2021, at 10:24, Bruce Momjian <br...@momjian.us> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Apr 5, 2021 at 02:01:58PM -0400, Bruce Momjian wrote:
>> On Mon, Apr 5, 2021 at 11:33:10AM -0500, Justin Pryzby wrote:
>> Well, bug or not, we are not going to change back branches for this, and
>> if you want a larger discussion, it will have to wait for PG 15.
>>
>>>> https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/datatype-datetime.html%23DATATYPE-INTERVAL-INPUT&source=gmail-imap&ust=1618507489000000&usg=AOvVaw2h2TNbK7O41zsDn8HfD88C
>>>> « …field values can have fractional parts; for example '1.5 week' or
>>>> '01:02:03.45'. Such input is converted to the appropriate number of
>>>> months, days, and seconds for storage. When this would result in a
>>>> fractional number of months or days, the fraction is added to the
>>>> lower-order fields using the conversion factors 1 month = 30 days and 1
>>>> day = 24 hours. For example, '1.5 month' becomes 1 month and 15 days. Only
>>>> seconds will ever be shown as fractional on output. »
>>
>> I see that. What is not clear here is how far we flow down. I was
>> looking at adding documentation or regression tests for that, but was
>> unsure. I adjusted the docs slightly in the attached patch.
>
> Here is an updated patch, which will be for PG 15. It updates the
> documentation to state:
>
> The fractional parts are used to compute appropriate values for the next
> lower-order internal fields (months, days, seconds).
>
> It removes the flow from fractional months/weeks to
> hours-minutes-seconds, and adds missing rounding for fractional
> computations.
Thank you Bruce. I look forward to documenting this new algorithm for
YugabyteDB. The algorithm implements the transformation from this:
[
yy_in numeric,
mo_in numeric,
dd_in numeric,
hh_in numeric,
mi_in numeric,
ss_in numeric
]
to this:
[
mo_internal_representation int,
dd_internal_representation int,
ss_internal_representation numeric(1000,6)
]
I am convinced that a prose account of the algorithm, by itself, is not the
best way to tell the reader the rules that the algorithm implements. Rather,
psuedocode is needed. I mentioned before that, better still, is actual
executable PL/pgSQL code. (I can expect readers to be fluent in PL/pgSQL.)
Given this executable simulation, an informal prose sketch of what it does will
definitely add value.
May I ask you to fill in the body of this stub by translating the C that you
have in hand?
create type internal_representation_t as(
mo_internal_representation int,
dd_internal_representation int,
ss_internal_representation numeric(1000,6));
create function internal_representation(
yy_in numeric default 0,
mo_in numeric default 0,
dd_in numeric default 0,
hh_in numeric default 0,
mi_in numeric default 0,
ss_in numeric default 0)
returns internal_representation_t
language plpgsql
as $body$
declare
mo_internal_representation int not null := 0;
dd_internal_representation int not null := 0;
ss_internal_representation numeric not null := 0.0;
ok constant boolean :=
(yy_in is not null) and
(mo_in is not null) and
(dd_in is not null) and
(hh_in is not null) and
(mi_in is not null) and
(ss_in is not null);
begin
assert ok, 'No actual argument, when provided, may be null';
-- The algorithm.
return (mo_internal_representation, dd_internal_representation,
ss_internal_representation)::internal_representation_t;
end;
$body$;
By the way, I believe that a user might well decide always to supply all the
fields in a "from text to interval" typecast, except for the seconds, as
integral values. This, after all, is what the "make_interval()" function
enforces. But, because the typecast approach allows non-integral values, the
reference documentation must explain the rules unambiguously so that the reader
can predict the outcome of any ad hoc test that they might try.
It's a huge pity that the three values of the internal representation cannot be
observed directly using SQL because each behaves with different semantics when
an interval value is added to a timestamptz value. However, as a second best
(and knowing the algorithm above), a user can create interval values where only
one of the three fields is populated and test their understanding of the
semantic rules that way.
