[Mondrian] [Fwd: Eigenbase perforce change 9873 for review]

[Julian Hyde]

> Rushan's change below is checked in as LucidDB-specific, but 
> according 
> to SQL:2003, generating exponential literal format for 
> double-precision 
> values should always be the right thing to do, since without an 
> exponent, the DBMS is supposed to interpret the literal as a 
> fixed-point 
> value.
> 
> In cases like this, is it preferable to "not rock the boat" by making 
> the change LucidDB-specific?  The alternative is to change 
> Mondrian to 
> make it expect SQL:2003 behavior from the DBMS by default, and change 
> other dialects as needed (e.g. if a DBMS does not support the 
> standard 
> exponential format).
> 
> (Don't ask why anyone would be crazy enough to use 
> floating-point values 
> as member keys in the first place.)

The dubious thing in Rushan's change is the assumption that a Double value
in java maps to a DOUBLE column in SQL. The datatype of the value in java
depends as much on the JDBC driver as anything. I guess the driver should
use BigDecimal for fixed-point values, but many of them use Double instead.

I wouldn't think it is safe to extend this assumption to other databases and
JDBC drivers, so the prudent thing is to keep this as a LucidDB-specific
change.

Julian