Re: Type mismatch problem

Michael Rowan <mike.rowan@internode.on.net> writes:

As a total beginner who has for decades used an application that would allow type mismatches like boolean*numeric I tried the following select:

SELECT sum(cost*quantity)*(sales_type=1) AS sales_type1, sum(cost*quantity)*(sales_type=2) AS sales_type2 FROM etc etc

In the above, cost and quantity are TYPE numeric(9,2), sales_type is smallint.

PostgreSQL does not allow numeric*boolean.  The error message ends with "You might need t"  which kinda leaves me hanging.

FWIW, what I see is something like

regression=# select 92::numeric(9,2) * (2=1);
ERROR:  operator does not exist: numeric * boolean
LINE 1: select 92::numeric(9,2) * (2=1);
                               ^
HINT:  No operator matches the given name and argument type(s). You might need to add explicit type casts.

so I think your terminal must be truncating the message at 79 or 80
columms, which would be a good thing to fix.  There are lots of cases
where Postgres error messages will run longer than that.

As far as solving the real problem goes, although Postgres won't let a
boolean be silently treated as a number, you can (in reasonably modern
versions) cast it to integer explicitly:

regression=# select 92::numeric(9,2) * (2=1)::integer;
?column?
----------
    0.00
(1 row)

The other respondent's suggestion to use a CASE is probably better
style, but if you just want the minimum change in your habits, this
might help.

regards, tom lane