Re: BUG #13267: Some timezones in pg_timezone_names are missing in pg_timezone_abbrevs

On 11/05/2015 17:23, Tom Lane wrote:
> Berend De Schouwer <berend.de.schouwer@gmail.com> writes:
>> I was just surprised to see that the list of abbrevs in _names is
>> different from the list of abbrevs in _abbrevs.  I would have expected
>> the lists to be identical.
> Unfortunately not.  If you look a bit closer you will note that many
> time zones use the very same abbreviation for entirely different UTC
> offsets, so we could not possibly make those mappings be inverses.

That's a surprise and a bummer.  Ooh.  OK, that's a very good reason.

> Another reason for limiting what the server will accept is to reduce
> the scope for errors: even though there is only one meaning for "CAT"
> anywhere in the world, if you are not in Africa then it's quite likely
> that such a string is a typo (perhaps for "CST", which is only one key
> away) and not intended input.

That argument goes both ways :)

Anyway, the server isn't necessarily next to the client, or even on the
same continent.


Thanks for the help.