Re: [PATCH] Add get_bytes() and set_bytes() functions

Aleksander Alekseev <aleksander@timescale.com>

From: Aleksander Alekseev <aleksander@timescale.com>
To: pgsql-hackers@lists.postgresql.org
Cc: Dean Rasheed <dean.a.rasheed@gmail.com>, Joel Jacobson <joel@compiler.org>, David Fetter <david@fetter.org>
Date: 2024-08-15T10:58:03Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
Hi,

> Perhaps we should also add casts between bytea and the integer/numeric
> types. That might be easier to use than functions in some
> circumstances.
>
> When casting a numeric to an integer, the result is rounded to the
> nearest integer, and NaN/Inf generate errors, so we should probably do
> the same here.

Yes, I was also thinking about adding NUMERIC versions of get_bytes()
/ set_bytes(). This would allow converting more than 8 bytes to/from
an integer. I dropped this idea because I thought there would be not
much practical use for it. On the flip side you never know who uses
Postgres and for what purpose.

I will add corresponding casts unless the idea will get a push-back
from the community. IMO the existence of these casts will at least not
make things worse.

-- 
Best regards,
Aleksander Alekseev



Commits

  1. Allow casting between bytea and integer types.