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Thread: Numeric casts in locale en_GB on FreeBSD 4.7

Numeric casts in locale en_GB on FreeBSD 4.7

From
Andrew Grillet
Date:
Hi,

I am unable to cast a string to float, any way I try.

This is FreeBSD Stable, with Postgresql 7.3.4.

Most (probably) legit methods produce either a message to the effect
that ' ##.##' is an illegal format or ' ' (ie a single space) is an
illegal format.

Workaround is to use en_US as the locale for numerics.

Sorry exact message not retained, butI am not putting the system back to
a non-working condition intentionally :-)

The documentation is not at all clear as to what should be a legal
format string for converting text to numbers, only numbers to text.

I think there should be a default  that works if you say
to_number(variable);
(ie no format string) regardless of the locale.

I am a new user, and assumed it was my mistake for a good 6 hours
of experimenting :-(

Andrew

Re: Numeric casts in locale en_GB on FreeBSD 4.7

From
Lynn.Tilby@asu.edu
Date:
Andrew,

If you are using embedded sql try atof (ascii to float).
Lynn

Quoting Andrew Grillet <andrew@grillet.co.uk>:

> Hi,
>
> I am unable to cast a string to float, any way I try.
>
> This is FreeBSD Stable, with Postgresql 7.3.4.
>
> Most (probably) legit methods produce either a message to the effect
> that ' ##.##' is an illegal format or ' ' (ie a single space) is an
> illegal format.
>
> Workaround is to use en_US as the locale for numerics.
>
> Sorry exact message not retained, butI am not putting the system back to
>
> a non-working condition intentionally :-)
>
> The documentation is not at all clear as to what should be a legal
> format string for converting text to numbers, only numbers to text.
>
> I think there should be a default  that works if you say
> to_number(variable);
> (ie no format string) regardless of the locale.
>
> I am a new user, and assumed it was my mistake for a good 6 hours
> of experimenting :-(
>
> Andrew
>
>
>
>
>
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Re: Numeric casts in locale en_GB on FreeBSD 4.7

From
Stephan Szabo
Date:
On Sat, 25 Oct 2003, Andrew Grillet wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am unable to cast a string to float, any way I try.
>
> This is FreeBSD Stable, with Postgresql 7.3.4.
>
> Most (probably) legit methods produce either a message to the effect
> that ' ##.##' is an illegal format or ' ' (ie a single space) is an
> illegal format.

What statements were you trying exactly?