Commit 44f7afba authored by Robert Haas's avatar Robert Haas

Improve documentation of timestamp internal representation.

Be more clear that we represent timestamps in microseconds when
integer timestamps are used, and in fractional seconds when
floating-point timestamps are used.

Discussion: http://postgr.es/m/20161212135045.GB15488@e733.localdomain

Report by Alexander Alekseev.  Wording by me with a suggestion
from Tom Lane.
parent 3633b3f6
...@@ -1651,13 +1651,14 @@ SELECT E'\\xDEADBEEF'; ...@@ -1651,13 +1651,14 @@ SELECT E'\\xDEADBEEF';
<para> <para>
When <type>timestamp</> values are stored as eight-byte integers When <type>timestamp</> values are stored as eight-byte integers
(currently the default), microsecond precision is available over (currently the default), microsecond precision is available over
the full range of values. When <type>timestamp</> values are the full range of values. In this case, the internal representation
stored as double precision floating-point numbers instead (a is the number of microseconds before or after midnight 2000-01-01.
deprecated compile-time option), the effective limit of precision When <type>timestamp</> values are stored as double precision
might be less than 6. <type>timestamp</type> values are stored as floating-point numbers (a deprecated compile-time option), the
seconds before or after midnight 2000-01-01. When internal representation is the number of seconds before or after
<type>timestamp</type> values are implemented using floating-point midnight 2000-01-01. With this representation, the effective limit
numbers, microsecond precision is achieved for dates within a few of precision might be less than 6; in practice,
microsecond precision is achieved for dates within a few
years of 2000-01-01, but the precision degrades for dates further years of 2000-01-01, but the precision degrades for dates further
away. Note that using floating-point datetimes allows a larger away. Note that using floating-point datetimes allows a larger
range of <type>timestamp</type> values to be represented than range of <type>timestamp</type> values to be represented than
......
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