Thread: Undocumented FLOAT data type

I just noticed the SQL-92 FLOAT datatype is implemented in the grammar but is
not documented in the manual.

By the way, what was the ANSI/ISO SQL committee thinking when they made up
perverse names like "CHARACTER VARYING"?  (Not to mention all the functions
that require special grammar rules just to parse...)

 - Mark Butler

Mark Butler writes:

> I just noticed the SQL-92 FLOAT datatype is implemented in the grammar but is
> not documented in the manual.

It's in the 7.1 manual.

> By the way, what was the ANSI/ISO SQL committee thinking when they made up
> perverse names like "CHARACTER VARYING"?  (Not to mention all the functions
> that require special grammar rules just to parse...)

There is strong evidence that they were only thinking a small fraction of
the total time.

--
Peter Eisentraut      peter_e@gmx.net       http://yi.org/peter-e/

Peter Eisentraut wrote:
>
> Mark Butler writes:
>
> > I just noticed the SQL-92 FLOAT datatype is implemented in the grammar but is
> > not documented in the manual.
>
> It's in the 7.1 manual.

I can't seem to find it on the web page:

http://postgresql.readysetnet.com/devel-corner/docs/postgres/datatype.html

or in the head branch datatype.sgml file.

There is "real", "double precision", "float4", and "float8", but no "float".

- Mark

Mark Butler writes:

> > It's in the 7.1 manual.
>
> I can't seem to find it on the web page:
>
> http://postgresql.readysetnet.com/devel-corner/docs/postgres/datatype.html
>
> or in the head branch datatype.sgml file.
>
> There is "real", "double precision", "float4", and "float8", but no "float".

Ooops.

--
Peter Eisentraut      peter_e@gmx.net       http://yi.org/peter-e/