On 2/11/11 10:11 AM, Jeff Davis wrote: > Thoughts? Do the benefits outweigh the costs?
I guess I'm having trouble tying the concept of empty ranges to any reality external to the database. For example, what would the time range: '('15:15:00','15:15:00')' ... represent exactly? "A non-existant point in time which might or might not be near 3:15 PM"? For my personal use of ranges, I'm very reluctant to embrace a concept in the database which can't possibly depict something concrete. Really, it seems like you're trying to fix NULL by separating the concept of EMPTY from NULL. Which is a good idea in general, I'm just not sure that this is the way to do it. HOWEVER, I also recognize that range types might be used for scientific applications, in which the mathematical concepts of imaginary ranges and empty ranges might be valid. So I wouldn't want to prohibit this feature for the people who need it. BUT ... if I, in one of my applications, accidentally defined something as having the range '('15:15:00','15:15:00')', I would *want* the database to through an error and not accept it. So, if we allow empty ranges of this kind, I would want a GUC for "allow_empty_ranges". -- -- Josh Berkus PostgreSQL Experts Inc. http://www.pgexperts.com -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers