to_char/to_number loses sign

This is from one of the examples in the documentation:

SELECT to_char(-485, '999S');
to_char
---------
485-

The reverse doesn't work as well:

SEKLECT to_number('485-', '999S');
to_number
-----------
485

Is this a bug or intentional?

--
Peter Eisentraut
http://developer.postgresql.org/~petere/

Peter Eisentraut <peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net> writes:
> SELECT to_number('485-', '999S');
> to_number
> -----------
> 485

> Is this a bug or intentional?

Tracing through this, it looks like the problem is that NUM_processor()
has no switch case for NUM_S (nor does the default case raise an error,
which seems a risky practice to me).

Karel, can you verify this and submit a fix?

regards, tom lane

On Sat, 2004-10-23 at 17:25 -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> Peter Eisentraut <peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net> writes:
> > SELECT to_number('485-', '999S');
> > to_number
> > -----------
> > 485
>
> > Is this a bug or intentional?
>
> Tracing through this, it looks like the problem is that NUM_processor()
> has no switch case for NUM_S (nor does the default case raise an error,
> which seems a risky practice to me).
>
> Karel, can you verify this and submit a fix?

Yes, you're right. It strange, but NUM_S missing there. The conversion
from string to number is less stable part of formatting.c...

I have already 2000 lines of code of new generation of to_..()
functions. But all will available in 8.1.

The patch is in the attachment.

Karel

--
Karel Zak
http://home.zf.jcu.cz/~zakkr

Karel Zak <zakkr(at)zf(dot)jcu(dot)cz> writes:
> Yes, you're right. It strange, but NUM_S missing there. The conversion
> from string to number is less stable part of formatting.c...

> The patch is in the attachment.

This patch causes the regression tests to fail. I think you need to
consider the to_char() side of it more carefully.

regards, tom lane

On Tue, 2004-10-26 at 13:27 -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> Karel Zak <zakkr(at)zf(dot)jcu(dot)cz> writes:
> > Yes, you're right. It strange, but NUM_S missing there. The conversion
> > from string to number is less stable part of formatting.c...
>
> > The patch is in the attachment.
>
> This patch causes the regression tests to fail. I think you need to
> consider the to_char() side of it more carefully.

Sorry of this in beta version...

The problem was bigger than I expected. I hope it's fixed in actual
patch. All regression tests pass.

The patch changes two lines in regression test too. It's because old
version of to_number() allows to use wrong number input and this input
was in regression test. The call to_char(-0.01, ' 9 9 . 9 9 S'); never
produced ' . 0 1 -' but always ' . 0 1-' only.

-SELECT '' AS to_number_13, to_number(' . 0 1 -', ' 9 9 . 9 9 S');
+SELECT '' AS to_number_13, to_number(' . 0 1-', ' 9 9 . 9 9 S');
^^^
'S' = locale sign and it must be always anchored to last or first
number.

Again sorry,
Karel

--
Karel Zak
http://home.zf.jcu.cz/~zakkr

Karel Zak <zakkr(at)zf(dot)jcu(dot)cz> writes:
> The problem was bigger than I expected. I hope it's fixed in actual
> patch. All regression tests pass.

Applied, thanks.

regards, tom lane