swelham

swelham

We’re in the process of moving our codebase from Postgres to MySQL (using PlanetScale) and we’re noticing a number of our aggregate queries are now trying to calculate using the Decimal<> type, instead of integers.

For example, the following query treats the column types differently depending on which adapter we’re using.

SomeTable
|> select([t], sum(t.int_col_one) - sum(i.int_col_two))
|> Repo.one()

Using Postgres this will subtract two integers.

Using MySQL (using MyXQL) it will attempt to subtract from a decimal.

Error thrown from the query

bad argument in arithmetic expression: Decimal.new("7401") - 7401

:erlang.-(Decimal.new("7401"), 7401)

We have also observed sum and avg aggregates also return decimal types now (all columns are integers) where as previously we would get an integer back when using Postgres.

I haven’t found much info on this so any pointers or solutions would be appreciated.

Showing Posts 1 to 2

sbuttgereit

sbuttgereit

This appears to be documented behavior of the sum and avg aggregates in MySQL:

The SUM() and AVG() functions return a DECIMAL value for exact-value arguments (integer or DECIMAL), and a DOUBLE value for approximate-value arguments (FLOAT or DOUBLE).

Having survived many data migration projects my best advice is that different database vendors do similar things differently: never take for granted that similar operations are in fact the same operation across database products.

LostKobrakai

LostKobrakai

Yeah, even postgres returns a numeric for sum(bigint) -> numeric vs. sum(integer) -> bigint.

I also want to explicitly highlight: this is not ectos doing. Ecto just builds a query for the database to execute and transform any data getting back from the db. It’s not meant to abstract any differences between databases. It just allows you to work with different databases using the same tools.

— All posts loaded —

Where Next? Top

Trending in Questions Top

katta
I having some trouble figuring out if I have set myself too strict of standards for my production server. Currently I can handle 75% of r...
New
brecabral
Documentation While reading the Scoped Routes section, I noticed that the documentation currently refers to a problem without explainin...
New
achenet
Hello, I’m trying to build a basic Phoenix web-app, and I’d like to use Tailwind. However, when I launch mix phx.server, I get an error...
New
kpanic
Hi everyone, I am toying with the idea of building a “match maker” for giving personal help to people that wants to start coding. I sta...
New
asweet-confluent
I recently noticed that Elixir’s Logger defaults its primary log level to :debug when no :logger, :level application configuration is pre...
New
Cxx-mlr
I’m working on a small exercise involving update_in/3, and I came up with this solution: data = %{ name: "Periodic Table", category:...
New
ChrisAmelia
I’ve got trouble wrapping my head around the order in which functions are called in this snippet (from Phoenix’s authentication): toke...
New

Other Trending Topics Top

GenericJam
Edit: 2026 May 15 - This post is archived. Mob is alive!! Main docs: mob v0.7.11 — Documentation A bit of explanation for the slightly c...
New
JesseHerrick
Hey, I’m Jesse and I’m the main contributor behind Dexter, a full-featured, lightning-fast Elixir LSP optimized for large codebases. It s...
New
mudasobwa
I am happy to introduce the very α version of the new programming language compiled to BEAM. Welcome Cure. It has literally three kille...
New
garrison
Hobbes is a low-level distributed database for the Elixir programming language. Hobbes provides a simple, safe, and scalable storage lay...
New
mhanberg
Hi everyone! The first release candidate for the Expert language server project is now available! We’ve published a press release detai...
New
budgie
A little off-topic, but I feel like people here have a good head on their shoulders. I used to be quite good at making software. Was luc...
New

We're in Beta

About us Mission Statement

Options

Thread Display Mode




Thread Preview

Skip Thread Previews