Postgres INSERT timestamp with UNION ALL error - postgresql

Good day!
I need to export/import data from SQL Server 2019 to AWS RDS running PostgreSQL 13.3
It's just a few hundred rows from a handful of tables.
This is my first ever encounter with Postgres, so I decided to simply script data as "INSERT ... SELECT", as I would with SQL Server... and I've looked into AWS Glue, RDS S3 Import - it all seems waaay too much for what I need.
I am using DBeaver v21 for of this as I have easy access to both source and destination DBs.
This I tested with success:
CREATE TABLE public.invoices (
invoiceno int8 NOT NULL GENERATED BY DEFAULT AS IDENTITY,
terminalid int4 NOT NULL,
invoicedate timestamp NOT NULL,
description varchar(100) NOT null
);
INSERT INTO public.invoices(InvoiceNo,TerminalID,InvoiceDate,Description)
SELECT 7 as invoiceno , 5 as terminalid , '2018-10-24 21:29:00' as invoicedate , N'Coffe and cookie' as description
-- Updated Rows 1
-- No problem here
I scripted the rest of the data with UNION ALL, like so (shortened example) :
INSERT INTO public.invoices(InvoiceNo,TerminalID,InvoiceDate,Description)
SELECT 7 as invoiceno , 5 as terminalid , '2018-10-24 21:29:00' as invoicedate , N'Coffe and cookie' as description
UNION ALL
SELECT 1000, 5 , '2018-10-24 21:29:00' , N'Tea and crumpets'
and now I get:
SQL Error [42804]: ERROR: column "invoicedate" is of type timestamp without time zone but expression is of type text
Hint: You will need to rewrite or cast the expression.
Position: 118
I do see in the message that it can be "fixed" with a CAST (or rewrite!)....
but how come Postgres can convert 1 row implicitly, yet 2 rows is impossible?
why does this fail when more than 1 row is being inserted? - it clearly knows how to convert text -> date ...
I tried using VALUES, CTE, derived tables with no success.
As I have to spend more time with postgres - I really would like to understand what's going on here. Is my syntax wrong (works fine SQL Server), is DBeaver messing up something with my data, etc...?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you

'2018-10-24 21:29:00' is a string value and Postgres is a bit more picky about correct data types then SQL Server.
You need to specify the value as a proper timestamp constant,
timestamp '2018-10-24 21:29:00'
Note that you can write that in a bit more compact form using a values clause:
INSERT INTO public.invoices(InvoiceNo,TerminalID,InvoiceDate,Description)
values
(7, 5, timestamp '2018-10-24 21:29:00', 'Coffe and cookie'),
(1000, 5 , timestamp '2018-10-24 21:29:00' , 'Tea and crumpets');

The reason of such behaviour is in order of compilation.
In situation when you use VIEW first are compiled querys in view and types of columns (names too) in view is taken from the first part of a "view" (the first SELECT command).
So, you have got text instead of timestamp and it doesn't match to inserted table type.
MSSQL compiler is a little bit smarter :-).
In first example you have simple INSERT INTO ... SELECT ....
and compiler at once expect timestamp type - so , it not rise any compilation error (but error can ocure in execution time when the data do not pass rules of automatic conversion).

Related

Swapping Timestamp for Timestamp With Time zone causes error with jdbc

I'm looking for a way around an unexpected problem. We have a third party app that is loading data into our database. It's our code that creates the postgresql schema, the third party doesn't provide it. With TIMESTAMP columns this works, but we'd much prefer to use TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE.
We tried to do this by changing the default TimeZone of the user. The following SQL works through psql. The fixed timezone for the user is assumed:
insert into AAA (FOO,BAR) select 'X','2022/03/19 21:15:25' where not exists (select 1 from AAA where FOO = 'X'
But the app is raising an exception:
Caused by: org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: ERROR: column "BAR" is of type timestamp with time zone but expression is of type character varying
Hint: You will need to rewrite or cast the expression.
The timezone of the user was set with:
insert into pg_db_role_setting (setrole, setdatabase, setconfig) values (16394, 0, '{TimeZone=+10}')
And in psql, subsiquent calls to SELECT now() return in +10 timezone as desired.
Firstly, why could JDBC be hitting an error when the psql doesn't on the same insert statement?
Secondly is there any workaround for this without changing the program source code?

Using DDL, how can the default value for a Numeric(8,0) field be set to today's date as YYYYMMDD?

I'm trying to convert this, which works:
create_timestamp for column
CREATETS TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
to something that works like this, but this code is not working:
date_created for column
DTCREATE NUMERIC(8,0) NOT NULL DEFAULT VARCHAR_FORMAT(CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, 'YYYYMMDD'),
Can anyone advise DDL to accomplish what I'm going for? Thank you.
When asking for help with Db2, always specify your Db2-server platform (Z/OS , i-series, linux/unix/windows) and Db2-server version, because the answer can depend on these facts.
The default-clause for a column does not have syntax that you expect, and that is the reason you get a syntax error.
It's can be a mistake to store a date as a numeric, because it causes no end of hassle to programmers and reporting tools, and data exchange. It's usually a mistake based on false assumptions.
If you want to store a date (not a timestamp) then use the column datatype DATE which lets you use:
DTCREATE DATE NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT DATE
How you choose, or future programmers choose , to render the value of a date on the SQL output is a different matter.
You may use BEFORE INSERT trigger to emulate a DEFAULT clause with such an unsupported function instead.
CREATE TRIGGER MYTAB_BIR
BEFORE INSERT ON MYTAB
REFERENCING NEW AS N
FOR EACH ROW
WHEN (N.DATE_CREATED IS NULL)
SET DATE_CREATED = VARCHAR_FORMAT(CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, 'YYYYMMDD');

Can't enter date into postgres field with datatype reltime

I'm trying to make an insert into postgres 8.4.13
insert into my_table (id, hour_memo) values (1,'17:30:00.000000 +01:00:00');
hour_memo is 'reltime datatype'
During the execution of the insert task i have this trouble:
ERROR: invalid input syntax for type reltime: "17:30:00.000000 +01:00:00"
I have absolutely no idea on how to do this?
The answer is that reltime doesn't support time zones, so the "+01..." thing is breaking it. Still - using reltime type is bad idea, and should be replaced by some normal type.

Rectifying timeformat in PostgreSQL

I am working on third party data which I need to load into my postgresql database. I am running into problems where sometimes I get the time '24:00:30' when it actually should be '00:00:30'. This rejects the data.
I tried to cast but it did not work.
insert into stop_times_test trip_id, cast(arrival_time as time), feed_id, status
from external_source;
Is there any way to convert to the correct one internally?
This may work for your case:
> select '0:0:0'::time + '24:00:30'::interval;
00:00:30
Cast to interval, then cast to time:
SELECT '24:00:30'::interval::time
If you want to bulk load the data with COPY or mass INSERT make the target column data type interval and convert it to time later. This works out of the box:
ALTER TABLE mytable ALTER col1 TYPE time;
No, there is no magic way of doing it. No cast will help you. 24:00:30 is an invalid time. Period.
You could try adding that value on a varchar and then using regular expressions to update the right values and insert them on the right columns. This sort of things happen a lot when doing data transformation.

make a column in sybase default to the current date/time of row insertion

I have a sybase 15 DB and for one of my tables, I want to make a column default to the current date/time of the row insert. Is this possible?
In a sybase text, the following is said:
ALTER TABLE sales_order
MODIFY order_date DEFAULT CURRENT DATE
On my DB this doesn't do anything, as CURRENT DATE is not recognized.
using getDate() is a valid solution, you must have had a syntax error. Try it like this:
create table test_tbl (
date_data DATETIME default getDate() NOT NULL
)
Try using getDate() instead
... DEFAULT GETDATE() is correct. the case is irrelevant; mixed case may indicate a Java method, but it is a straight TSQL Function. Please post the exact error msg if you want further assistance.
Also, the ALTER TABLE method sets the Default for future INSERTS; if you want the existing data changed, you need to UPDATE (good for small tables) or unload/reload the table (demanded for the large).
Watch the NULL/NOT NULL: you do not want to change that without understanding. Again, the existing/future issue needs address. NOT NULL prevents NULL being explicitly passed as an INSERT VALUE.
CURRENT_DATE is a SQL standard that isn't universally adopted.
As noted elsewhere the getdate() T-SQL function should be used instead.