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

On Friday, April 12, 2019, Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> wrote:

> 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:
> >
> 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.
>
>
See also:

https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/flat/CAKFQuwYXhvhr8hWd1ZjWedediHiC2pY4SrvOwSNDVu8sguBhdQ%40mail.gmail.com#c18e77160d396e00d4d9f097f4294a7d

The docs maybe aren’t great at covering this but they do, and correctly.
Though maybe a note saying “this works but you probably should use actual
casts” would be warranted. I personally have not found a need to use the
“type” ‘literal’ syntax.

David J.