Re: greatest/least semantics different between oracle and postgres

[Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>]

Ben <bench(at)silentmedia(dot)com> writes:
> On Jun 29, 2007, at 9:15 PM, Tom Lane wrote:
>> Hmm ... I fear Oracle's behavior is more correct, because if any
>> argument is null (ie, unknown), then who can say what the greatest or
>> least value is?  It's unknown (ie, null).  But I suspect our behavior
>> is more useful.  Comments?

> I agree with you. I don't know what the spec says, but it seems clear  
> Oracle is doing the proper thing and Postgres is doing the useful thing.

GREATEST/LEAST aren't in the spec, so there's not much help there.

Except ... if they ever do get added to the spec, what do you think
the spec will say?  The odds it'd contradict Oracle seem about nil.

			regards, tom lane