On Thu, Mar 18, 2004 at 10:38:28AM -0400, PostgreSQL Bugs List wrote: > > The following bug has been logged online: > > Bug reference: 1107 > Logged by: Jozef Behran > > Email address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > PostgreSQL version: 7.3.2 > > Operating system: Mandrake GNU/Linux > > Description: Missing feature: interval <-> numeric quantity > conversion > > Details: > > Having two timestamps it is common need to know how many > seconds/minutes/hours/days/etc. passed from one to the other. However there > is no easy way to do this task. > > The basic idea is subtracting the two timestamps. However it gives a data > type called "interval". The thing I would like to have is a function that > takes the "interval" and outputs it's length. Currently when I want a > program to know how long an interval is I must let it parse the interval > textual representation (which may be subject to change) to obtain what I > want. > > I consider this to be a bug, because it seriously degrades the usability of > timestamp data types in applications where interval lengths are extensively > demanded and used. I was forced to store these data in an INT8 data type > column because my project extensively uses time interval lengths for other > computations and converting dates to INT8 before write and then subtracting > the numbers when need arises is MUCH faster than subtracting timestamps and > parsing the result of such a subtraction. > > Note: The 'date' data type does not have this problem. The result of two > dates subtraction is an integer (not 'interval') which I can use quite > easily.
date_part( 'epoch', <interval> ) does what you want to convert an interval into seconds as a numeric value. --Joe -- Joe Sunday <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.csh.rit.edu/~sunday/ Computer Science House, Rochester Inst. Of Technology ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 6: Have you searched our list archives? http://archives.postgresql.org
