I am using PostgreSQL via the Ruby gem 'sequel'.
I'm trying to round to two decimal places.
Here's my code:
SELECT ROUND(AVG(some_column),2)
FROM table
I get the following error:
PG::Error: ERROR: function round(double precision, integer) does
not exist (Sequel::DatabaseError)
I get no error when I run the following code:
SELECT ROUND(AVG(some_column))
FROM table
Does anyone know what I am doing wrong?
PostgreSQL does not define round(double precision, integer)
. For reasons @Mike Sherrill 'Cat Recall' explains in the comments, the version of round that takes a precision is only available for numeric
.
regress=> SELECT round( float8 '3.1415927', 2 );
ERROR: function round(double precision, integer) does not exist
regress=> \df *round*
List of functions
Schema | Name | Result data type | Argument data types | Type
------------+--------+------------------+---------------------+--------
pg_catalog | dround | double precision | double precision | normal
pg_catalog | round | double precision | double precision | normal
pg_catalog | round | numeric | numeric | normal
pg_catalog | round | numeric | numeric, integer | normal
(4 rows)
regress=> SELECT round( CAST(float8 '3.1415927' as numeric), 2);
round
-------
3.14
(1 row)
(In the above, note that float8
is just a shorthand alias for double precision
. You can see that PostgreSQL is expanding it in the output).
You must cast the value to be rounded to numeric
to use the two-argument form of round
. Just append ::numeric
for the shorthand cast, like round(val::numeric,2)
.
If you're formatting for display to the user, don't use round
. Use to_char
(see: data type formatting functions in the manual), which lets you specify a format and gives you a text
result that isn't affected by whatever weirdness your client language might do with numeric
values. For example:
regress=> SELECT to_char(float8 '3.1415927', 'FM999999999.00');
to_char
---------------
3.14
(1 row)
to_char
will round numbers for you as part of formatting. The FM
prefix tells to_char
that you don't want any padding with leading spaces.