On Wed, 2002-07-03 at 14:32, Rod Taylor wrote: > > > It should also be noted that an ALTER TABLE / SET TYPE implemented with > > > the above idea with run into the 2x diskspace issue as well as take > > > quite a while to process. > > > > I think that if the 'SET TYPE' operation is ever to be rollback-able, it > > will need to use 2x diskspace. If it's overwritten in place, there's no > > chance of fallback... I think that a DBA would choose to use the command > > knowing full well what it requires? Better than not offering them the > > choice at all! > > True, but if we did the multi-version thing in pg_attribute we may be > able to coerce to the right type on the way out making it a high speed > change.
If I understand you right, i.e. you want to do the conversion at each select(), then the change is high speed but all subsequent queries using it will pay a a speed penalty, not to mention added complexity of the whole thing. I don't think that making changes quick autweights added slowness and complexity - changes are meant to be slow ;) The real-life analogue to the proposed scenario would be adding one extra wheel next to each existing one in a car in order to make it possible to change tyres while driving - while certainly possible nobody actually does it. --------------- Hannu ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 2: you can get off all lists at once with the unregister command (send "unregister YourEmailAddressHere" to [EMAIL PROTECTED])