Leif B. Kristensen wrote:
On Thursday 2. April 2009, Steve Crawford wrote:
Currently string_to_array(null, ',') yields a null result -
indistinguishable from string_to_array('',','). Wrapping in coalesce
does not help distinguish true null input from empty-string input. I'm
not sure at the moment what other cases exist where non-null input
generates null output.
Somehow this reminds me of the old "division by zero" problem.
IMO, the proper way to handle this kind of anomaly would be to test if
the length of the string is non-zero before submitting it to the
string_to_array() function.
Quite the opposite. Where division by zero is simply illegal as is, say,
string_to_array(1234, ','), string_to_array('', ',') is legal.
Unfortunately it is legal, and legal and legal.... with numerous
reasonable interpretations of which legal is most appropriate/consistent.
I would argue against a change to have string_to_array('',',') throw an
error.
Cheers,
Steve
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