Re: Robert Haas 2014-02-05 <ca+tgmozy4kkaptkf2pxcoqnt-jb0ysp8w2php_qge62nilv...@mail.gmail.com> > >> <literal>0</literal>, the output is the same on every platform > >> supported by PostgreSQL. Increasing it will produce output that > >> more accurately represents the stored value, but may be unportable. > >> + Casts to other numeric datatypes and the <literal>to_char</literal> > >> + function are not affected by this setting, it affects only the text > >> + representation. > >> </para> > >> </note> > >> > > > > Anyone for that patch? > > Well, the new text kinda recapitulates what the existing text already > says. If we're going to clarify, I'd do it like this: > > The <xref linkend="guc-extra-float-digits"> setting controls the > number of extra significant digits included when a floating point > value is converted to text for output. It does not affect the results > when a floating point number is converted to some other data type > or formatted using <literal>to_char</literal>. > > But frankly I'm inclined to just leave it alone. It says that it > affects what happens when the value "is converted to text for output". > That's specific and accurate. Granted, someone could misunderstand, > but that's true of almost anything we might write, and being too > long-winded has costs of its own.
Yes, the original text is correct. The point is that the original text doesn't really make the reader (who might think the numbers he's seeing on the screen will also be used for computation/inserts) aware that he's looking at something very different from what will actually be used internally. I'm sure we were not the only one to stumble over that problem, and I even knew what extra_float_digits is for, yet I didn't connect the dots in the beginning. Including some explicit heads-up sentence in there solves that problem, either your version, or mine. Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Christoph Berg -- Tel.: +49 (0)21 61 / 46 43-187 credativ GmbH, HRB Mönchengladbach 12080, USt-ID-Nummer: DE204566209 Hohenzollernstr. 133, 41061 Mönchengladbach Geschäftsführung: Dr. Michael Meskes, Jörg Folz, Sascha Heuer
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