Re: Why don't we accept exponential format for integers?

On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 12:16 PM, Bill Moran <wmoran(at)potentialtech(dot)com> wrote:
> In response to Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>:
>
>> Josh Berkus <josh(at)agliodbs(dot)com> writes:
>> > postgres=# select '1e+01'::Integer
>> > postgres-# ;
>> > ERROR:  invalid input syntax for integer: "1e+01"
>>
>> I have never heard of any programming system anywhere that accepts such
>> a syntax for integers (assuming it distinguishes integers from other
>> numbers at all).  I'm not excited about being the first.  Why does this
>> error surprise you?  It doesn't seem particularly different from arguing
>> that 1.000 should be considered an integer, which strikes me as a
>> seriously bad idea.
>
> But
> SELECT 1.000::Integer;
> works.  And so does
> SELECT 1.234::Integer;

And so does:
SELECT 1.23e+01::Integer

> which I find just as dangerous as
> SELECT '1.234e+01'::Integer;

Add quotes to either of the other two, and then they don't work either.

Cheers,

Jeff