To: Tony Capobianco <tcapobianco@prospectiv.com>
cc: pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: Determine length of numeric field 
In-reply-to: <1297802915.1703.13.camel@tony1.localdomain> 
References: <1297802915.1703.13.camel@tony1.localdomain>
Comments: In-reply-to Tony Capobianco <tcapobianco@prospectiv.com>
	message dated "Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:48:35 -0500"
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:10:16 -0500
Message-ID: <10590.1297804216@sss.pgh.pa.us>
From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

Tony Capobianco <tcapobianco@prospectiv.com> writes:
> I'm altering datatypes in several tables from numeric to integer.  In
> doing so, I get the following error:

> dw=# \d uniq_hits
>     Table "support.uniq_hits"
>    Column   |  Type   | Modifiers 
> ------------+---------+-----------
>  sourceid   | numeric | 
>  hitdate    | date    | 
>  total      | numeric | 
>  hitdate_id | integer | 
> Indexes:
>     "uniq_hits_hitdateid_idx" btree (hitdate_id), tablespace
> "support_idx"
> Tablespace: "support"

> esave_dw=# alter table uniq_hits alter sourceid type int;
> ERROR:  integer out of range

> Sourceid should not be more than 5 digits long.  I'm able to perform
> this query on Oracle and would like something similar on postgres 8.4:

> delete from uniq_hits where sourceid in (select sourceid from uniq_hits
> where length(sourceid) > 5);

That seems like a pretty bizarre operation to apply to a number.  Why
not "where sourceid > 99999"?  Or maybe "where abs(sourceid) > 99999"
would be better.

			regards, tom lane