2010/7/26 Vincenzo Romano <vincenzo.romano@xxxxxxxxxxx>: > 2010/7/26 Pavel Stehule <pavel.stehule@xxxxxxxxx>: >> Hello >> >> you can try >> >> postgres=# select int8send(256); >> int8send >> -------------------- >> \x0000000000000100 >> (1 row) >> >> for converting from bytea to int8 you need a custom function - probably in C :( > > int8send? It seems I have the solution. CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION bytea_to_int8( ba BYTEA, OUT res INT8 ) LANGUAGE plpgsql STRICT AS $BODY$ DECLARE i INT; nb INT; k CONSTANT INT8 := INT8( 2^(64-8-1) ); b8 CONSTANT INT8 := 2^8; BEGIN res := 0; IF length( ba ) > 7 THEN nb = 6; -- all but last one ELSE nb = length( ba ); -- all of them END IF; FOR i IN 0 .. nb LOOP res := b8*res + get_byte( ba,i ); END LOOP; IF length( ba ) < 8 THEN RETURN; END IF; IF res > k-1 THEN res := (res-k)*-b8; ELSE res := res*b8; END IF; res := res + get_byte( ba,7 ); END; $BODY$; This function should get at most 8 bytes from a BYTEA and pack *all bits* into a BIGINT (aka INT8) to be returned. The function is somehow more "verbose" than needed in order to try to make it clearer how it works and to make it more general. The first 7 bytes are packed into the "first" 7 bytes of an INT8 in a straightforward way. Some maths is needed to pack the 8th byte without overflowing the INT8 (unsigned INT8 are not available at the moment). Of course a C language functions could have been faster, cleaner and ... less interesting to me. Now, why doing this? I am using a plain SEQUENCE to create a (kind of) "session ID". That is simple but predictable. The idea is to use this function in conjunction with encrypt (from pgcrypto) and the blowfish algorithm to make that sequence numbers somehow unpredictable. I'm pretty sure there are better (or at least easier) solutions out there, but there needs to be also some fun in here. As usual, any hint is appreciated. Flames can go to /dev/null :-) -- Vincenzo Romano NotOrAnd Information Technologies NON QVIETIS MARIBVS NAVTA PERITVS -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general