<datetime> / <duration> feature is questionable, possibly should be removed.

[tobiemh]

Discussed in https://github.com/orgs/surrealdb/discussions/1207

^{Originally posted by finnbear September 23, 2022}

Is your feature request related to a problem?

SurrealDB implements division for datetime divided by duration, which truncates the datetime to the duration:

SELECT * FROM time::now() / 1w;

The implementation of the feature is questionable because:

• v and w are reversed here (should be v / w):

  surrealdb/lib/src/sql/value/value.rs

  Line 1234 in 5fe1fd0

  (Value::Datetime(v), Value::Duration(w)) => Value::Datetime(w / v),

The feature itself is questionable because:

• Division truncates instead of dividing:

  surrealdb/lib/src/sql/duration.rs

  Lines 207 to 218 in 5fe1fd0

  	impl ops::Div<Datetime> for Duration {
  	type Output = Datetime;
  	fn div(self, other: Datetime) -> Datetime {
  	match chrono::Duration::from_std(self.0) {
  	Ok(d) => match other.duration_trunc(d) {
  	Ok(v) => Datetime::from(v),
  	Err(_) => Datetime::default(),
  	},
  	Err(_) => Datetime::default(),
  	}
  	}
  	}

Describe the solution

• Remove this type of division
• time::floor seems like a canonical, much more clear way to truncate datetimes

Alternative methods

• Use the time::floor function to truncate datetimes to specific durations.

SurrealDB version

surreal 1.0.0-beta.7 for windows on x86_64

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct