Re: Alter column

Tom Lane wrote:

>Mike Ellsworth <nhrcommu(at)rochester(dot)rr(dot)com> writes:
>
>
>>Is there a way to convert data type `datetime` into an integer
>>(unix_timestamp) while doing ALTER COLUMN `column_name` TYPE int4
>>USING CAST(`column_name` as integer) ...... something like this?
>>
>>
>
>Something involving extract(epoch) would do that ... but why do you
>want to? If the column is really timestamps then you are almost always
>best off to declare it as timestamps. When you have a client that wants
>a numeric version, they can do the extract(epoch) bit when they select
>the data (or you can make a view that does so, if the client code is
>too brain-dead to manage it for itself). The normal rule of good
>database design is that the database should have as much knowledge
>as possible about what it's storing, not as little as possible.
>
> regards, tom lane
>
Actually, we do not have a specific purpose in mind. We're trying to
make a simple GUI that will allow users to do this if they (for whatever
the reason) feel the need.

Your point is a good one though and we should probably include a
Javascript warning for this particular 'feature'.

Thanks,
Mike

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