Re: [HACKERS] floating point representation

[Tom Lane]

Peter Eisentraut <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> Actually, you're going to have to recode the float*in() functions, using
> scanf, and scanf's formats are not always equivalent to printf's.

Further thought: one answer to this is to institute four SET variables,
two for output and two for input; perhaps FLOAT8_FORMAT, FLOAT8_IN_FORMAT,
and similarly for FLOAT4.  The input formats would normally just be
"%lg" and "%g" but could be changed for special cases (like reading
table dumps prepared with %a output format).

However, it's becoming quite clear to me that this feature needs more
thought than first appeared.  Accordingly, I now vote that we not try
to fit it into 7.1, but do it in a more considered fashion for 7.2.

                        regards, tom lane