Re: Precision of data types and functions

On Fri, 2006-09-01 at 13:24, Brandon Aiken wrote:
> > Now, MySQL's design to 9-fill fields when you try to enter a too-large
> > number is, in fact, stupid on MySQL's part. I consider that silent
> > truncation. Heck, MySQL lets you create a date on February 31st, or
> > prior to the year 1500, both of which are obviously nonsensical.
>
> What's nonsensical about a date before the year 1500??? it's not like
> that didn't exist or something.
> The Gregorian calendar was established in the 1500's by Pope Gregory,
> so, no, those dates did not exist.

That makes no sense whatsoever. Just because the calendar is a somewhat
modern invention doesn't mean that the year 45 BC doesn't exist... How
else are we to keep track of dates from before that time? Switch to the
Mayan calendar? I'm pretty sure no one's made a Mayan Calendar
extension for PostgreSQL (or any other database) just yet.

test=> insert into test values ('1023-04-12 BC');
INSERT 2124397005 1
test=> insert into test values ('1023-04-12');
INSERT 2124397005 1
test=> select * from test;
t
------------------------
1023-04-12 00:00:00
1023-04-12 00:00:00 BC
(2 rows)