Re: [PATCH] random_normal function - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From Fabien COELHO
Subject Re: [PATCH] random_normal function
Date
Msg-id 7372e72e-99ac-d758-1439-198f14dbbf7@mines-paristech.fr
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: [PATCH] random_normal function  (Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>)
Responses Re: [PATCH] random_normal function
List pgsql-hackers
Bonjour Michaël,

>> Overall, I think that there should be a clearer discussion and plan about
>> which random functionS postgres should provide to complement the standard
>> instead of going there… randomly:-)
>
> So, what does the specification tells about seeds, normal and random
> functions?  A bunch of DBMSs implement RAND, sometimes RANDOM, SEED or
> even NORMAL using from time to time specific SQL keywords to do the
> work.

I do not have the SQL standard, so I have no idea about what is in there.

From a typical use case point of view, I'd say uniform, normal and 
exponential would make sense for floats. I'm also okay with generating a 
uniform bytes pseudo-randomly.

I'd be more at ease to add simple functions rather than a special 
heavy-on-keywords syntax, even if standard.

> Note that SQLValueFunction made the addition of more returning data
> types a bit more complicated (not much, still) than the new
> COERCE_SQL_SYNTAX by going through a mapping function, so the
> keyword/function mapping is straight-forward.

I'm unclear about why this paragraph is here.

-- 
Fabien.

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