Subject: Passing a dynamic interval to generate_series()

From: Igal Sapir <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2024 15:39:26 -0700

Hello,

I am trying to pass a dynamic interval to generate_series() with date range.

This works as expected, and generates a series with an interval of 1 month:

SELECT generate_series(
    date_trunc('month', current_date),
    date_trunc('month', current_date + interval '7 month'),
    interval '1 month'
)

This works as expected and returns an interval of 1 month:

SELECT ('1 ' || 'month')::interval;

But this throws an error (SQL Error [42601]: ERROR: syntax error at or near
"'1 '"):

SELECT generate_series(
    date_trunc('month', current_date),
    date_trunc('month', current_date + interval '7 month'),
    interval ('1 ' || 'month')::interval
)

And this returns a series with interval of 1 second??

SELECT generate_series(
    date_trunc('month', current_date),
    date_trunc('month', current_date + interval '7 month'),
    (interval '1 ' || 'month')::interval
)

Because this returns an interval of 1 second:

SELECT (interval '1 ' || 'month')::interval;

Is that a bug?

I am able to work around the issue using a CASE statement, but shouldn't it
work simply by concatenating the string with the || operator?

Thank you,

Igal

---

From: Shammat <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 2024 09:37:24 +0200

Igal Sapir schrieb am 01.07.2024 um 00:39:
> But this throws an error (SQL Error [42601]: ERROR: syntax error at or near "'1 '"):
>
> SELECT generate_series(

I am a fan of make_interval() when it comes to creating intervals from dynamic parameters:

SELECT generate_series(
    date_trunc('month', current_date),
    date_trunc('month', current_date + interval '7 month'),
    make_interval(months => 1)
)

The value for make_interval() can e.g. passed as a parameter from your programming language.