Wrong output for 7.0.3 from NULL fields in CASE statement

Started by PostgreSQL Bugs Listabout 25 years ago3 messagesbugs
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#1PostgreSQL Bugs List
pgsql-bugs@postgresql.org

Justin Clift (aa2@bigpond.net.au) reports a bug with a severity of 2
The lower the number the more severe it is.

Short Description
Wrong output for 7.0.3 from NULL fields in CASE statement

Long Description
I am getting output that doesn't make sense from a simple SQL statement. I am expecting to get a '0'::text returned by this statement, but instead I'm getting very, very small numbers, or other weird things. It's a catch for NULL values and isn't interpreting them correctly when it gets them.

I have tested this on a machine with PostgreSQL 7.0.3 compiled from source, and I have tested this on a machine with the postgresql-7.0.3-2mdk RPMS available from ftp.postgresql.org... so this isn't due to the known problems with Mandrake's dodgy 7.0.2 RPM's.

Please see the attached code to see what I mean.

Sample Code
The fields "cashback" and "surcharge" are NULL for this query, but it seems to be returning very small numbers instead.

foobar> select * from transaction_payments;

idnum | payment_type | currency | voucher_idnum | exchange_rate | amount | cashback | surcharge | gst
-------+--------------+----------+---------------+---------------+--------+----------+-----------+-----------
139 | 6 | 18 | | 1 | 170 | | | 17

foobar=# select text(CASE WHEN (cashback = NULL or cashback = 0) THEN '0' ELSE cashback END) from transaction_payments where idnum = 139 and payment_type = 6;
text
-----------------------
1.01855797968803e-312
(1 row)

foobar=# select text(CASE WHEN (surcharge = NULL or surcharge = 0) THEN '0' ELSE surcharge END) from transaction_payments where idnum = 139 and payment_type = 6;
text
-----------------------
1.01855797968803e-312
(1 row)

foobar=# select text(CASE WHEN (surcharge ISNULL or surcharge = 0) THEN '0' ELSE surcharge END) from transaction_payments where idnum = 139 and payment_type = 6;
text
------
NaN
(1 row)

foobar=# select float4(CASE WHEN (cashback = NULL or cashback = 0) THEN '0' ELSE cashback END) from transaction_payments where idnum = 139 and payment_type = 6;
ERROR: Bad float4 input format -- underflow

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#2Tom Lane
tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us
In reply to: PostgreSQL Bugs List (#1)
Re: Wrong output for 7.0.3 from NULL fields in CASE statement

pgsql-bugs@postgresql.org writes:

foobar=# select text(CASE WHEN (cashback = NULL or cashback = 0) THEN '0' ELSE cashback END) from transaction_payments where idnum = 139 and payment_type = 6;
text
-----------------------
1.01855797968803e-312
(1 row)

Try not quoting the '0'. For reasons that I don't recall at the moment,
7.0 has a problem coercing unknown-type literals to the proper datatype
in CASE expressions. It seems to work OK in 7.1 though.

regards, tom lane

#3Thomas Lockhart
lockhart@alumni.caltech.edu
In reply to: PostgreSQL Bugs List (#1)
Re: Wrong output for 7.0.3 from NULL fields in CASE statement

I am getting output that doesn't make sense from a simple SQL statement.
I am expecting to get a '0'::text returned by this statement, but
instead I'm getting very, very small numbers, or other weird things.
It's a catch for NULL values and isn't interpreting them correctly when
it gets them.

For a float8 field "d", I can reproduce this with a slightly simpler
case:

lockhart=# select case when (d = null) then 0 else d end from t1;
text
------
0
(1 row)

lockhart=# select case when (d = null) then '0' else d end from t1;
text
-----------------------
1.11784577978351e+253
(1 row)

I haven't tracked it down, but I'll guess that the automatic type
conversion logic is getting confused with the stringy form of zero.

I do not see the symptom in the current development tree.

- Thomas