Erwin Brandstetter <brsaweda@gmail.com> writes: > On 21 August 2017 at 16:30, David G. Johnston <david.g.johnston@gmail.com> > wrote: >> On Mon, Aug 21, 2017 at 5:36 AM, Erwin Brandstetter <brsaweda@gmail.com> >> wrote: >>> The example fails for locales where the comma (',') does not happen to be >>> the group separator and the dot ('.') is not the decimal point.
>> If one wants to try the example in a language other than in which the >> example was written they should modify it so that the literal number being >> parsed in written in conformance to the locale definition for the language >> you are using.
> I guess there should be some more explanation.
Yeah. How about adding something like this to the "Usage notes for numeric formatting" between tables 9-26 and 9-27:
* The pattern characters S, L, D, and G represent the sign, currency symbol, decimal point, and thousands separator characters defined by the current locale (see lc_monetary and lc_numeric). The pattern characters period and comma represent those exact characters, with the meanings of decimal point and thousands separator, regardless of locale.
That should help to clear up some confusion, especially for to_number(). I suggest some minor modifications:
* The pattern characters S, L, D, and G represent the sign, currency symbol, decimal point, and group separator characters defined by the current locale (see lc_monetary and lc_numeric). The pattern characters period (.) and comma (,) represent decimal point and group separator, regardless of locale.