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Cast NULL into Timestamp?
5+ messages / 5 participants
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* Cast NULL into Timestamp?
@ 2004-12-10 19:24 Wei Weng <wweng@kencast.com>
  2004-12-11 00:10 ` Re: Cast NULL into Timestamp? Steve Crawford <scrawford@pinpointresearch.com>
  2004-12-11 00:48 ` Re: Cast NULL into Timestamp? Stephan Szabo <sszabo@megazone.bigpanda.com>
  2004-12-11 05:11 ` Re: Cast NULL into Timestamp? Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com>
  2004-12-11 17:10 ` Re: Cast NULL into Timestamp? Frank Bax <fbax@sympatico.ca>
  0 siblings, 4 replies; 5+ messages in thread

From: Wei Weng @ 2004-12-10 19:24 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: pgsql-sql

I have a table

create table temp
(
	tempdate	timestamp,
	tempname	varchar(10)
);

And I tried to insert the following:

insert into table temp (tempname, tempdate)
select distinct 'tempname', null from some_other_relevant_table;

And I got an error that says "column "tempdate" is of type timestamp ... but 
expression is of type text... will need to rewrite or cast the expression".

I really need the distinct. Is there anyway to cast this NULL into a 
timestamp or any other workarounds?


Thanks

Wei



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 5+ messages in thread

* Re: Cast NULL into Timestamp?
  2004-12-10 19:24 Cast NULL into Timestamp? Wei Weng <wweng@kencast.com>
@ 2004-12-11 00:10 ` Steve Crawford <scrawford@pinpointresearch.com>
  3 siblings, 0 replies; 5+ messages in thread

From: Steve Crawford @ 2004-12-11 00:10 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Wei Weng <wweng@kencast.com>; pgsql-sql

On Friday 10 December 2004 11:24 am, Wei Weng wrote:
> I have a table
>
> create table temp
> (
> 	tempdate	timestamp,
> 	tempname	varchar(10)
> );
>
> And I tried to insert the following:
>
> insert into table temp (tempname, tempdate)
> select distinct 'tempname', null from some_other_relevant_table;
>
> And I got an error that says "column "tempdate" is of type
> timestamp ... but expression is of type text... will need to
> rewrite or cast the expression".
>
> I really need the distinct. Is there anyway to cast this NULL into
> a timestamp or any other workarounds?

How about:
insert into table temp (tempname)
select distinct 'tempname' from some_other_relevant_table;

Unless there's something you have left out in describing your setup 
this will leave the tempdate column null.

Cheers,
Steve




^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 5+ messages in thread

* Re: Cast NULL into Timestamp?
  2004-12-10 19:24 Cast NULL into Timestamp? Wei Weng <wweng@kencast.com>
@ 2004-12-11 00:48 ` Stephan Szabo <sszabo@megazone.bigpanda.com>
  3 siblings, 0 replies; 5+ messages in thread

From: Stephan Szabo @ 2004-12-11 00:48 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Wei Weng <wweng@kencast.com>; +Cc: pgsql-sql

On Fri, 10 Dec 2004, Wei Weng wrote:

> I have a table
>
> create table temp
> (
> 	tempdate	timestamp,
> 	tempname	varchar(10)
> );
>
> And I tried to insert the following:
>
> insert into table temp (tempname, tempdate)
> select distinct 'tempname', null from some_other_relevant_table;
>
> And I got an error that says "column "tempdate" is of type timestamp ... but
> expression is of type text... will need to rewrite or cast the expression".
>
> I really need the distinct. Is there anyway to cast this NULL into a
> timestamp or any other workarounds?

CAST(NULL as timestamp) should work.



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 5+ messages in thread

* Re: Cast NULL into Timestamp?
  2004-12-10 19:24 Cast NULL into Timestamp? Wei Weng <wweng@kencast.com>
@ 2004-12-11 05:11 ` Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com>
  3 siblings, 0 replies; 5+ messages in thread

From: Josh Berkus @ 2004-12-11 05:11 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: pgsql-sql; +Cc: Wei Weng <wweng@kencast.com>

Wei,

> insert into table temp (tempname, tempdate)
> select distinct 'tempname', null from some_other_relevant_table;

I don't think you're reporting the error exactly as it happened.  Try cutting 
and pasting your actual PSQL session into your e-mail.

Perhaps you are mixing up the column order?

-- 
Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 5+ messages in thread

* Re: Cast NULL into Timestamp?
  2004-12-10 19:24 Cast NULL into Timestamp? Wei Weng <wweng@kencast.com>
@ 2004-12-11 17:10 ` Frank Bax <fbax@sympatico.ca>
  3 siblings, 0 replies; 5+ messages in thread

From: Frank Bax @ 2004-12-11 17:10 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: pgsql-sql; +Cc: Wei Weng <wweng@kencast.com>

At 12:11 AM 12/11/04, Josh Berkus wrote:

>Wei,
>
> > insert into table temp (tempname, tempdate)
> > select distinct 'tempname', null from some_other_relevant_table;
>
>I don't think you're reporting the error exactly as it happened.  Try cutting
>and pasting your actual PSQL session into your e-mail.
>
>Perhaps you are mixing up the column order?


A copy/paste certainly would have been helpful in this case.  There are 
several problems with the above query.
1) the keyword 'table' is not part of insert command.
2) If 'tempname' is a fieldname, it should not have single quotes.
3) NULL doesn't seem to work as expression in select.

If (3) is the real problem here, then either solution proposed by 
Steve/Stephan will work. 




^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 5+ messages in thread


end of thread, other threads:[~2004-12-11 17:10 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 5+ messages (download: mbox mbox.gz follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2004-12-10 19:24 Cast NULL into Timestamp? Wei Weng <wweng@kencast.com>
2004-12-11 00:10 ` Steve Crawford <scrawford@pinpointresearch.com>
2004-12-11 00:48 ` Stephan Szabo <sszabo@megazone.bigpanda.com>
2004-12-11 05:11 ` Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com>
2004-12-11 17:10 ` Frank Bax <fbax@sympatico.ca>

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