Missing documentation for uses of extract(field from interval)

From: Daniel Grace <dgrace(at)wingsnw(dot)com>
To: pgsql-docs(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Missing documentation for uses of extract(field from interval)
Date: 2011-02-08 21:30:13
Message-ID: AANLkTinq_cgsuqgjkM5-R+anvSxTLdG6CD45nsVWCHG4@mail.gmail.com
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replies. Thanks!)

I pulled up the documentation today to see if I could get just the
number of days in an interval using EXTRACT. The answer provided was
vague: While you can use EXTRACT(field from interval) (shown in table
9-27), section 9.9.1 only lists:

day

The day (of the month) field (1 - 31)

SELECT EXTRACT(DAY FROM TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');
Result: 16

It turns out that EXTRACT(day FROM interval) does work as expected --
so perhaps the documentation should be updated to something like:

day

The day (of the month) field (1 - 31), or the number of days in the interval

SELECT EXTRACT(DAY FROM TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');
Result: 16

SELECT EXTRACT(DAY FROM INTERVAL '42 days 21:00:00');
Result: 42

Likewise for month, year, century and maybe some others. (hour,
minute, and *second{s?} probably don't need updated text).

There also should probably be some warning in here about EXTRACT on
intervals however. Namely cases like this:

SELECT EXTRACT(YEAR FROM INTERVAL '400 days') --> Result: 0
(because the interval is '400 days' not '1 year 35 days')
SELECT EXTRACT(DAY FROM INTERVAL '1 year') --> Result: 0 (because
the interval is '1 year' not '365 days')
SELECT EXTRACT(DAY FROM INTERVAL '1 month') --> Result: 0

Though, this works:
SELECT EXTRACT(CENTURY FROM INTERVAL '99 years') --> Result: 0
SELECT EXTRACT(CENTURY FROM INTERVAL '100 years') --> Result: 1
--
Daniel Grace
AGE, LLC
System Administrator and Software Developer

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