[Libreoffice-bugs] [Bug 51523] EDITING: Database Format TIME [HH]:MM:SS not working

[bugzilla-daemon at freedesktop.org]

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51523

--- Comment #14 from Lionel Elie Mamane <lionel at mamane.lu> 2012-07-06 06:54:50 PDT ---
(In reply to comment #13)
> (In reply to comment #12)

>> That's your problem. SQL type "TIME" stores values between "00:00:00" and
>> "23:59:59". So it is not the *format* that does not work, but you are using the
>> wrong column type. What you are trying to do is akin to trying to store "600"
>> in a TINYINT column: it will wrap around and *store* 88 because you are beyond
>> the range handled by the column.

> If that is so, then why is there a menu in editing a tablefield that gives the
> possibillity to choose the format TIME (876613:37:46).

The choice of format is not, in general, restricted by the type of the column.
You can also choose a "Boolean Value" format, which makes even less sense. So,
yes, the user is allowed to shoot him/herself in the foot and to make choices
that don't make sense.

Also, the formatting system is shared with Calc, which does not have as
strong/static typing as a SQL database. Calc does not make a clean difference
between a TIME (within an unspecified day), a DATE (a specific day), a DATETIME
(SQL TIMESTAMP, a specific time withing a specific day) and a duration (time
interval, SQL INTERVAL, that is the difference between two DATETIMEs). These
are all floating-point numbers to Calc, just "formatted" differently.

The difference between interval and time is the same as "2 hours" and "2
o'clock". "40 hours" makes sense as a duration, but "40 o'clock" does not make
sense (on planet Earth). SQL databases make the difference between the two, but
LibreOffice Base does not support intervals. That's a missing feature, I filed
bug 51779 about that.

> If the possibillity is given and in the helpfile also mentioned,
> a user should be able to use it without complications.

I don't know which paragraph of which documentation you refer to; we'd be glad
for a suggestion what to write instead of what where.

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