Re: [HACKERS] timestamp subtraction (was Re: formatting intervals with to_char)

On Oct 5, 2006, at 11:50 AM, Tom Lane wrote:
> regression=# select ('2006-09-15 23:59:00'::timestamp - '2006-09-01
> 09:30:41'::timestamp);
> ?column?
> ------------------
> 14 days 14:28:19
> (1 row)
>
> should be reporting '350:28:19' instead.
>
> This is a hack that was done to minimize the changes in the regression
> test expected outputs when we changed type interval from months/
> seconds
> to months/days/seconds. But I wonder whether it wasn't a dumb idea.
> It is certainly inconsistent, as noted in the code comments.
>
> I'm tempted to propose that we remove the justify_hours call, and tell
> anyone who really wants the old results to apply justify_hours() to
> the
> subtraction result for themselves. Not sure what the fallout would
> be,
> though.

I suspect there's applications out there that are relying on that
being nicely formated for display purposes.

I agree it should be removed, but we might need a form of backwards
compatibility for a version or two...
--
Jim Nasby jimn(at)enterprisedb(dot)com
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com 512.569.9461 (cell)