Doc: improve documentation about width_bucket().

Specify whether the bucket bounds are inclusive or exclusive,
and improve some other vague language.  Explain the behavior that
occurs when the "low" bound is greater than the "high" bound.
Make width_bucket_numeric's comment more like that for
width_bucket_float8, in particular noting that infinite
bounds are rejected (since they became possible in v14).

Reported-by: Ben Peachey Higdon <bpeacheyhigdon@gmail.com>
Author: Robert Treat <rob@xzilla.net>
Co-authored-by: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Reviewed-by: Dean Rasheed <dean.a.rasheed@gmail.com>
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/2BD74F86-5B89-4AC1-8F13-23CED3546AC1@gmail.com
Backpatch-through: 13

diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/func.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/func.sgml
index 5efac2f7e06f89d9c0ae9b654fead21547593389..bafd8dc3548cf8cb005c43d62035b34e7ca0cbdd 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/src/sgml/func.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/func.sgml
@@ -1774,13 +1774,23 @@ repeat('Pg', 4) <returnvalue>PgPgPgPg</returnvalue>
         which <parameter>operand</parameter> falls in a histogram
         having <parameter>count</parameter> equal-width buckets spanning the
         range <parameter>low</parameter> to <parameter>high</parameter>.
-        Returns <literal>0</literal>
+        The buckets have inclusive lower bounds and exclusive upper bounds.
+        Returns <literal>0</literal> for an input less
+        than <parameter>low</parameter>,
         or <literal><parameter>count</parameter>+1</literal> for an input
-        outside that range.
+        greater than or equal to <parameter>high</parameter>.
+        If <parameter>low</parameter> &gt; <parameter>high</parameter>,
+        the behavior is mirror-reversed, with bucket <literal>1</literal>
+        now being the one just below <parameter>low</parameter>, and the
+        inclusive bounds now being on the upper side.
        </para>
        <para>
         <literal>width_bucket(5.35, 0.024, 10.06, 5)</literal>
         <returnvalue>3</returnvalue>
+       </para>
+       <para>
+        <literal>width_bucket(9, 10, 0, 10)</literal>
+        <returnvalue>2</returnvalue>
        </para></entry>
       </row>
 
@@ -1792,8 +1802,8 @@ repeat('Pg', 4) <returnvalue>PgPgPgPg</returnvalue>
        <para>
         Returns the number of the bucket in
         which <parameter>operand</parameter> falls given an array listing the
-        lower bounds of the buckets.  Returns <literal>0</literal> for an
-        input less than the first lower
+        inclusive lower bounds of the buckets.
+        Returns <literal>0</literal> for an input less than the first lower
         bound.  <parameter>operand</parameter> and the array elements can be
         of any type having standard comparison operators.
         The <parameter>thresholds</parameter> array <emphasis>must be

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/float.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/float.c
index dfa90a04fb2b154ad1c1ea397c05ef250626c27d..9f39ad254bbe556fc941f0adfea9046539ffa324 100644 (file)
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/float.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/float.c
@@ -4075,8 +4075,8 @@ float84ge(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
  * in the histogram. width_bucket() returns an integer indicating the
  * bucket number that 'operand' belongs to in an equiwidth histogram
  * with the specified characteristics. An operand smaller than the
- * lower bound is assigned to bucket 0. An operand greater than the
- * upper bound is assigned to an additional bucket (with number
+ * lower bound is assigned to bucket 0. An operand greater than or equal
+ * to the upper bound is assigned to an additional bucket (with number
  * count+1). We don't allow "NaN" for any of the float8 inputs, and we
  * don't allow either of the histogram bounds to be +/- infinity.
  */

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/numeric.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/numeric.c
index e2e243835e203366fe3beffb9234d36d69e02169..3ea1b910039e051ee8f5d1faec7aba3b2dcc7bd4 100644 (file)
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/numeric.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/numeric.c
@@ -1835,9 +1835,10 @@ generate_series_step_numeric(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
  * in the histogram. width_bucket() returns an integer indicating the
  * bucket number that 'operand' belongs to in an equiwidth histogram
  * with the specified characteristics. An operand smaller than the
- * lower bound is assigned to bucket 0. An operand greater than the
- * upper bound is assigned to an additional bucket (with number
- * count+1). We don't allow "NaN" for any of the numeric arguments.
+ * lower bound is assigned to bucket 0. An operand greater than or equal
+ * to the upper bound is assigned to an additional bucket (with number
+ * count+1). We don't allow "NaN" for any of the numeric inputs, and we
+ * don't allow either of the histogram bounds to be +/- infinity.
  */
 Datum
 width_bucket_numeric(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)