At 23:27 22/11/00 -0500, Tom Lane wrote:
>Philip Warner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>>
>> Is there a reason why it doesn't promote float8 to numeric?
>
>Mixing exact and inexact numerics (to use the
>spec's terminology) can hardly be expected to produce an exact result.
I suppose it's a question of working in the most accurate representation
for each number to minimize inaccuracy, then representing the result as
accurately as possible. Since numeric is more accurate for calculation, I
assumes we'd use it if we had to choose. How we represent the result may be
up to the SQL standard.
All that aside, I was more worried that when people start upgrading to 7.1
we might be a flood of "my application doesn't work any more" bug reports.
>However, it may indeed cause
>people to run into the numeric-vs-float8 ambiguity.
It's a little more than an ambiguity; anyone that mixes floats with sums
will get a crash in their application.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Philip Warner | __---_____
Albatross Consulting Pty. Ltd. |----/ - \
(A.B.N. 75 008 659 498) | /(@) ______---_
Tel: (+61) 0500 83 82 81 | _________ \
Fax: (+61) 0500 83 82 82 | ___________ |
Http://www.rhyme.com.au | / \|
| --________--
PGP key available upon request, | /
and from pgp5.ai.mit.edu:11371 |/