Re: binary representation of datatypes

On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 01:37:44PM +0200, Matthieu Imbert wrote:
> Yes microseconds are available in textual mode but i do want to use binary mode. Let me explain why:
> ...
> if i'm correct, it seems obvious that the second scenario is more efficient (and less ugly).

I wouldn't bet on scenario 2 being more efficient. For this you not only need
less conversions but also cheaper conversion. Now I haven't looked at this in
detail, but you might spend a lot of time doing stuff that has only a marginal
effect.

> In scenario 2, when talking about timestamp 'official' format, i mean timestamp expressed as number of microseconds since
> 2000-01-01. But of course, it only deserves this name 'official' if it is guaranteed to stay the same across postgresql versions and
> platforms

You shouldn't rely on this. Again I'd recommend using text.

Michael

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