Re: Absolute value of intervals

From: Jeff Davis <pgsql(at)j-davis(dot)com>
To: Scott Bailey <artacus(at)comcast(dot)net>
Cc: pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: Absolute value of intervals
Date: 2009-10-30 00:43:19
Message-ID: 1256863399.10769.235.camel@monkey-cat.sm.truviso.com
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On Thu, 2009-10-29 at 16:39 -0700, Scott Bailey wrote:
> But there is some ambiguity around the length of a month. So INTERVAL '1
> month - 30 days' = INTERVAL '0 days' = INTERVAL '-1 month +30 days'.
> But when added to a date, it makes no change for months with 30 days,
> adds 1 day for months with 31 days and subtracts 2 days for February.

Yes, that is a strange case. When you can't tell if an interval is
positive or negative, how do you define the absolute value?

I think that's a strong argument not to provide an absolute value
function for INTERVALs.

Regards,
Jeff Davis

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