Re: Money type not gone?

Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com>

From: Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com>
To: Andreas Pflug <pgadmin@pse-consulting.de>
Cc: Karel Zak <zakkr@zf.jcu.cz>, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>, pgsql-bugs@postgresql.org
Date: 2004-09-21T17:42:49Z
Lists: pgsql-bugs
Karel, Andreas,

> > My idea is special internal API that will usable for new datetypes
> > programming if type is defined as "numeric + symbol", for example things
> > like speed, weight, currency.. etc.
>
> A type consisting of value and unit probably makes pgsql even more first
> choice for technical applications. Please note that %, k, M and so on
> are scales, not units and thus dont belong into that type.

The difference with currency would be the lack of a fixed conversion for 
different units.    For example, you can:

10m == 1000cm
7l == 0.07m^3

But you can't reasonably:

10USD == 6.25UKL

... because that would require a query to money.yahoo.com to establish.  

-- 
Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco