Re: lower integer bound not supported

Sandro Santilli wrote:
> According to documentation (from 9.1 to 9.5) the supported
> integer ranges are these ones:
>
>  smallint  2 bytes   -32768 to +32767
>   integer  4 bytes   -2147483648 to +2147483647
>    bigint  8 bytes   -9223372036854775808 to +9223372036854775807
>
> But the lowest bound is not really supported:
>
>   # select -32768::int2;
>   ERROR:  smallint out of range
>   # select -2147483648::int4;
>   ERROR:  integer out of range
>   # select -9223372036854775808::int8;
>   ERROR:  bigint out of range

This is reported every once in a while.  It's not a bug, just an
operator precedence issue: the :: binds more tightly than the unary - so
the number is interpreted as a positive value first, which is indeed out
of range.  Try "(-32768)::int2".

Maybe it would be clearer if the error message indicated what's the
value that's out of range, so that the lack of the minus might make the
problem more evident; and perhaps add a HINT suggesting to add the
parens?

--
Álvaro Herrera                http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
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