Re: numeric cast oddity

2009/12/3 Sim Zacks <sim(at)compulab(dot)co(dot)il>

> When I cast an integer to numeric using :: notation it ignores the scale
> and precision that I specify, but when I use the cast function it uses
> the scale and precision that I specify.
>
> Sim
>
> select version();
> "PostgreSQL 8.3.5 on i586-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by GCC
> i586-pc-linux-gnu-gcc (GCC) 4.1.2 (Gentoo 4.1.2 p1.0.1)"
>
> select -1::numeric(20,4)
> ?column?
> numeric
> ------------
> -1.0000
>
> select cast(-1 as numeric(20,4))
> numeric
> numeric(20,4)
> -------------------
> -1.0000
>
>
>
That looks right to me. What you've effectively asked for is
-0000000000000001. 0000, which resolves to -1.000.

Regards

Thom