Re: [GENERAL] sum() bug? - Mailing list pgsql-general

From Ed Loehr
Subject Re: [GENERAL] sum() bug?
Date
Msg-id 38C4179A.783FFB70@austin.rr.com
Whole thread Raw
In response to sum() bug?  (Vincent Bodenstab <vincent.bodenstab@quicknet.nl>)
List pgsql-general
Vincent Bodenstab wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I was just wondering: when I execute the following query:
>
> select sum(foo) from bar where column1='value_which_does_not_exist';
>
> postgres gives me a result which consists of one row. But it shouldn't
> because
> that value does not exist.
>
> Does anyone know some sort of workaround for this? I need to use this
> query in
> a PHP script and this result in kind off annoying.

Yes, a bit annoying.  I think this may be fixed in 7.0 (as part of
similar group by problem?), but my 6.5.* workaround (in perl+DBI) is
to check for an undefined value, i.e.,

    while ( $result_row = fetch... ) {
        next if ( ! defined($result_row->{'sum'}) );
        ...
        process real results...
    }

Regards,
Ed Loehr

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