Re: getting the nearest number from a column

From: Mladen Gogala <mgogala.SPAM-ME.NOT_at_verizon.net>
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 19:44:30 +0200 (CEST)
Message-ID: <pan.2007.04.10.17.40.43@verizon.net>

On Tue, 10 Apr 2007 10:25:40 -0700, hasta_l3 wrote:

> On 10 avr, 18:39, Mladen Gogala <mgogala.SPAM-ME...._at_verizon.net> wrote:

>> On Tue, 10 Apr 2007 08:56:06 -0700, hasta_l3 wrote:
>> > Would you mean a bug in Oracle (documentation), Mladen ?
>>
>> > Granted, this area is somewhat tricky, but I don't see a bug here,
>> > for my understanding is :
>>
>> > - RANK is a ranking function, that is computed for the whole
>> > group/partition
>>
>> Find me a mention that this is a windowing
>> function:http://download-east.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/server.102/

b14200/

>> functions087.htm#i1280029
>>
>>

> Well, MIN is so classified in the database warehousing guide :
>
> http://download-east.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14223/
analysis.htm#i1014372
>
> The windowing behavior is demonstrated in the analytic example of the
> page you refer to above
>

Demonstration is not enough. Second, min as a windowing function makes no sense. This is such an important feature that it was a must to mention it. Who would be interested in "local minimum". Minimum should be returned for the whole partition, which is, in this case, the entire table. This is, at the very least, a documentation bug. In my opinion, it is also a software bug as "local minimum" makes no sense, at least not to me. Windowing functions make sense for lag and lead, but not for "min" or "max". As for the data warehouse guide, SQL functions are documented in SQL reference. That is where one should look.

-- 
http://www.mladen-gogala.com

Received on Tue Apr 10 2007 - 12:44:30 CDT