On Tue, Jun 21, 2005 at 06:59:38AM -0500, Bruno Wolff III wrote: > On Tue, Jun 21, 2005 at 08:42:16 +0300, > Eugen Nedelcu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > One solution to deal with this is to use to_char function, but for > > complex selects against multiple tables it's not a good option. > > Why not? You only have to apply it to the output expressions that > need it.
I think this: select * from table_with_text_and_numeric_fields; is much,much easier than: select text_field1,text_field2,to_char(numeric_field1, '99G999G999'), to_char(numeric_field2, '9G999G999G999'), text_field3, text_field4, to_char(numeric_field3, 'MI90G999D99') from table_with_text_and_numeric_fields; > > Note that if you output numbers like this, you also need to be able to > read them back in. I don't think adding complexity for doing that is > worth not having to add a few to_char calls in your select queries. > I don't know what 'read them back in' means to you. This formatting is only done when the number is output to the screen. Something like: fputs(thousands_comma_number, fout) instead of: fputs(original_number, fout) If you want to output to some file for reading back later, you could turn the feature off with the backslash switch '\n'. This is a patch for psql client and not for the backend. It's role is to output numbers to screen in easy readable form (2,345,675,454,543 is much easier to read then 2345675454543.456). I think graphical clients like pgAdmin or phppgadmin have a way to do this. I don't know this for sure but I will investigate it. Best Regards, Eugen ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 3: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate subscribe-nomail command to [EMAIL PROTECTED] so that your message can get through to the mailing list cleanly