Re: [HACKERS] Something for the TODO list: deprecating abstime and friends - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From Tom Lane
Subject Re: [HACKERS] Something for the TODO list: deprecating abstime and friends
Date
Msg-id 16490.1500332180@sss.pgh.pa.us
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: [HACKERS] Something for the TODO list: deprecating abstime and friends  (Mark Dilger <hornschnorter@gmail.com>)
Responses Re: [HACKERS] Something for the TODO list: deprecating abstime and friends
List pgsql-hackers
Mark Dilger <hornschnorter@gmail.com> writes:
> On Jul 17, 2017, at 3:12 PM, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
>> Now, this should mostly work conveniently, except that we have
>> +/-infinity (NOEND_ABSTIME/NOSTART_ABSTIME) to deal with ... It might
>> be saner to just desupport +/-infinity for abstime.

> I don't use those values, so it is no matter to me if we desupport them.  It
> seems a bit pointless, though, because we still have to handle legacy
> values that we encounter.  I assume some folks will have those values in
> their tables when they upgrade.

Well, some folks will also have pre-1970 dates in their tables, no?
We're just blowing those off.  They'll print out as some post-2038
date or other, and too bad.

Basically, the direction this is going in is that abstime will become
an officially supported type, but its range of supported values is "not
too many decades either way from now".  If you are using it to store
very old dates then You're Doing It Wrong, and eventually you'll get
bitten.  Given that contract, I don't see a place for +/-infinity.
        regards, tom lane



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