Re: SQL:2011 application time

On Thu, May 16, 2024 at 7:22 PM Jeff Davis <pgsql(at)j-davis(dot)com> wrote:
> An empty range does not "bypass" the an exclusion constraint. The
> exclusion constraint has a documented meaning and it's enforced.
>
> Of course there are situations where an empty range doesn't make a lot
> of sense. For many domains zero doesn't make any sense, either.
> Consider receiving an email saying "thank you for purchasing 0
> widgets!". Check constraints seem like a reasonable way to prevent
> those kinds of problems.

I think that's true. Having infinitely many events zero-length events
scheduled at the same point in time isn't necessarily a problem: I can
attend an infinite number of simultaneous meetings if I only need to
attend them for exactly zero time.

What I think is less clear is what that means for temporal primary
keys. As Paul pointed out upthread, in every other case, a temporal
primary key is at least as unique as a regular primary key, but in
this case, it isn't. And someone might reasonably think that a
temporal primary key should exclude empty ranges just as all primary
keys exclude nulls. Or they might think the opposite.

At least, so it seems to me.

--
Robert Haas
EDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com