Re: \timing interval

On Thu, Sep 1, 2016 at 2:43 PM, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:

> I wrote:
> > Sorry, that probably added no clarity at all, I was confusing
> > seconds with milliseconds in the example values :-(
>
> After a bit of further fooling with sample values, I propose this
> progression:
>
> Time: 0.100 ms
> Time: 1.200 ms
> Time: 1001.200 ms (0:01.001)
> Time: 12001.200 ms (0:12.001)
> Time: 60001.200 ms (1:00.001)
> Time: 720001.200 ms (12:00.001)
> Time: 3660001.200 ms (1:01:00.001)
> Time: 43920001.200 ms (12:12:00.001)
> Time: 176460001.200 ms (2 01:01:00.001)
> Time: 216720001.200 ms (2 12:12:00.001)
> Time: 10000000000000000000.000 ms (115740740740 17:46:40.000)
>
> Note that times from 1 second to 1 hour all get the nn:nn.nnn
> treatment. I experimented with these variants for sub-minute times:
>
> Time: 1001.200 ms (1.001)
> Time: 12001.200 ms (12.001)
> Time: 1001.200 ms (1.001 s)
> Time: 12001.200 ms (12.001 s)
>
> but it seems like the first variant is not terribly intelligible and
> the second variant is inconsistent with what happens for longer times.
> Adding a zero minutes field is a subtler way of cueing the reader that
> it's mm:ss.
>
> regards, tom lane
>

Well, if we're looking to be consistent, here's what interval does now:

# select '1 second 1 millisecond'::interval, '1 minute 2
milliseconds'::interval, '1 hour 30 milliseconds'::interval, '1 day 1 hour
999 milliseconds'::interval, '1 week 1 day 1 hour'::interval;
interval | interval | interval | interval |
interval
--------------+--------------+-------------+--------------------+-----------------
00:00:01.001 | 00:01:00.002 | 01:00:00.03 | 1 day 01:00:00.999 | 8 days
01:00:00
(1 row)

Should we just plug into whatever code that uses? It's slightly different:

# select interval '10000000000000000000.001 milliseconds'::interval;
ERROR: interval field value out of range: "10000000000000000000.001
milliseconds"
LINE 1: select interval '10000000000000000000.001 milliseconds'::int...
^
# select interval '216720001.200 milliseconds';
interval
---------------
60:12:00.0012
(1 row)

# select interval '176460001.200 ms';
interval
---------------
49:01:00.0012
(1 row)