Re: Confusing information in sections 8.5 and 9.9 (date and time types, functions and operators)

On Tue, Apr 9, 2019 at 02:50:14PM +0000, PG Doc comments form wrote:
> The following documentation comment has been logged on the website:
>
> Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/11/datatype-datetime.html
> Description:
>
> Both sections mention syntax TIMESTAMP '2019-01-20 08:00' as valid for input
> of timestamp data. This seems to work fine in psql, however, this syntax
> causes Syntax error when used in library access to the server (in my case it
> is via pg module in NodeJS). After spending half a day looking for error, I
> learned from the javascript module developer that the mentioned syntax
> cannot be used for programmatic access. Instead, he recommended to use cast
> operator form '2019-01-20 08:00'::timestamp.
> I tested his suggestion (it works, of course) and was looking for some
> mention or confirmation in the documentation, but found nothing. I think
> this is a serious issue, especially because the alternative possibility of
> using ::timestamp is not even mentioned in chapters 8.5 or 9.9. If someone
> (like me) looks for specific information how to handle date & time literals,
> they will inevitably fall into the same trap.
> Since the experienced Syntax error is contrary to what one would expect
> after reading the SQL language manual, could you please at least add some
> hyperlink in both sections 8.5 and 9.9 to attract reader's attention to this
> specific behavior of the database server? Thank you.

We don't get this question very often. I wonder if you didn't look at
the error message we generated, or if you could share the exact error
you saw.

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Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

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