Re: NULLIF problem - Mailing list pgsql-sql

On Nov 27, 2007, at 21:04 , Gera Mel Handumon wrote:

> I encounter an error if i use NULLIF with timestamp with time zone.
> eq. dbtime=nullif(mytime,'')
>
> i want to null the value of field DBTIME if the variable mytime=" "
>
> DBTIME ="timestamp with time zone" datatype
>
> error: column DBTIME is of type timestamp with time zone but
> expression is of type text.

I believe the reason is that '' is not a valid timestamp value: think
of it this way:

IF mytime = '' THEN
  mytime := NULL;
END IF;

The first thing it needs to do is compare the mytime value with ''.
As '' is not a valid timestamp value, it may be casing mytime to
text. You'll run into problems if you're assigning a text value to a
timestamp field (which happens after the initial comparison--and the
cast--are done.)

I think you may need to handle this is you middleware, or handle the
IF THEN explicitly in a function. Maybe CASE would work:

CASE WHEN mytime = '' THEN NULL
     ELSE CAST(mytime AS TIMESTAMP)
    END

Michael Glaesemann
grzm seespotcode net