Re: Determine length of numeric field

Tony Capobianco <tcapobianco(at)prospectiv(dot)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