From: Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
Message-Id: <200209290351.g8T3pW920188@candle.pha.pa.us>
Subject: Re: [SQL] CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
In-Reply-To: <20020929034706.GA6199@svana.org>
To: Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog@svana.org>
Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 23:51:32 -0400 (EDT)
Cc: Manfred Koizar <mkoi-pg@aon.at>,
	Roland Roberts <roland@astrofoto.org>, pgsql-sql@postgresql.org,
	pgsql-general@postgresql.org
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Martijn van Oosterhout wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 28, 2002 at 11:28:03PM -0400, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> > 
> > OK, we have two db's returning statement start time, and Oracle 8 not
> > having CURRENT_TIMESTAMP.
> > 
> > Have we agreed to make CURRENT_TIMESTAMP statement start, and now()
> > transaction start?  Is this an open item or TODO item?
> 
> Well, I'd rather it didn't change at all. IMHO it's a feature, not a bug. In
> any case, if it does get changed we'll have to go through the documentation
> and work out whether we mean current_timestamp or now(). I think most people
> actually want now().

Well, I think we have to offer statement start time somewhere, and it
seems the standard probably requires that.  Two other databases do it
that way.  Oracle doesn't have CURRENT_TIMESTAMP in 8.X.  Can anyone
test on 9.X?

> Fortunatly where I work we only use now() so it won't really matter too
> much. Is there a compelling reason to change?

Yes, it will split now() and CURRENT_TIMESTAMP.  I personally would be
happy with STATEMENT_TIMESTAMP, but because the standard requires it we
may just have to fix CURRENT_TIMESTAMP.

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