Re: [HACKERS] string_to_array with empty input

Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> writes:
> On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 10:44 AM, Greg Stark <stark@enterprisedb.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 3:42 PM, Sam Mason <sam@samason.me.uk> wrote:
>>> string_to_array('',',')::INT[] �=> invalid input syntax for integer: ""
>>
>> Oof. That's a good point.

> +1.  I find this argument much more compelling than anything else
> that's been offered up so far.

Yeah.  It seems to me that if you consider only the case where the array
elements are text, there's a weak preference for considering '' to be a
single empty string; but as soon as you think about any other datatype,
there's a strong preference to consider it a zero-element list.  So I
too have come around to favor the latter interpretation.  Do we have
any remaining holdouts?

            regards, tom lane