Re: timestamp fields and order by?

Steve Wampler <swampler@noao.edu> writes:
> Tom Lane wrote:
>> Even so, though, I think it would be quite foolish to design an
>> application around the assumption that the timestamps of successive
>> insertions will be distinguishable.  Put in a serial column.

> I'll do that.  I was a bit surprised to see that the sort wasn't
> stable, however.  Was that intentional for performance, or just
> not considered worth the effort?

I think our sort code isn't stable --- it's a quicksort which usually
isn't.  But in any case the physical tuple locations aren't guaranteed
to be strictly increasing, so changing the sort code wouldn't make it
safe.

            regards, tom lane