Interval unit format bug

There is something about the presentation in the documentation: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/datatype-datetime.html#DATATYPE-INTERVAL-OUTPUT

What would you expect, and how would this be different from the documented output?

Best regards,

Frank

Ps. Drivers like the JDBC driver can also change the format

On Apr 29, 2026, at 5:00 AM, Gary Clarke <gary@onedb.online> wrote:

Hello

Applies to all versions and operating systems

Even if I set to verbose, Postgres outputs a very strange abbreviation for interval unit months that nobody else uses or would expect.

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Best Regards

Gary

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Gary Clarke
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On Thu, Apr 30, 2026 at 6:32 AM Gary Clarke <gary@onedb.online> wrote:

Even if I set to verbose, Postgres outputs a very strange abbreviation for
interval unit months that nobody else uses or would expect.

Suggest you use the SQL or ISO variant format then. We aren't going to
change what we produce and risk breaking people's stuff.

David J.

Gary Clarke <gary@onedb.online> writes:

Even if I set to verbose, Postgres outputs a very strange abbreviation for interval unit months that nobody else uses or would expect.

[ shrug... ] This is documented:

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/datatype-datetime.html#DATATYPE-INTERVAL-OUTPUT

If we were to change it now, decades after the fact, what we'd mostly
accomplish is to break applications.

regards, tom lane