Re: doc: array_length produces null instead of 0

From: Aleksander Alekseev <aleksander(at)timescale(dot)com>
To: "David G(dot) Johnston" <david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com>
Cc: PostgreSQL Hackers <pgsql-hackers(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: doc: array_length produces null instead of 0
Date: 2022-06-21 13:33:03
Message-ID: CAJ7c6TN2AvpsWg5_Mqx39Kw-YeRZbZzojKX6BVJPz-UXPP_G3Q@mail.gmail.com
Views: Raw Message | Whole Thread | Download mbox | Resend email
Thread:
Lists: pgsql-hackers

Hi David,

> Per discussion here:
>
> https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/163636931138.8076.5140809232053731248%40wrigleys.postgresql.org
>
> We can now easily document the array_length behavior of returning null instead of zero for an empty array/dimension.
>
> I added an example to the json_array_length function to demonstrate that it does return 0 as one would expect, but contrary to the SQL array behavior.
>
> I did not bother to add examples to the other half dozen or so "_length" functions that all produce 0 as expected. Just the surprising case and the adjacent one.

Good catch.

+ <literal>array_length(array[], 1)</literal>
+ <returnvalue>NULL</returnvalue>

One tiny nitpick I have is that this example will not work if used
literally, as is:

```
=# select array_length(array[], 1);
ERROR: cannot determine type of empty array
LINE 1: select array_length(array[], 1);
```

Maybe it's worth using `array_length(array[] :: int[], 1)` instead.

--
Best regards,
Aleksander Alekseev

In response to

Responses

Browse pgsql-hackers by date

  From Date Subject
Next Message Przemysław Sztoch 2022-06-21 13:36:49 Re: [PATCH] Completed unaccent dictionary with many missing characters
Previous Message Jonathan S. Katz 2022-06-21 13:27:46 PostgreSQL 15 Beta 2 release