Saturation Arithmetic with a PostgreSQL Extension

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2024-05-08 08:00:04

In certain situations, it can be beneficial to ignore integer overflow errors. Consider, for instance, an integer table column that typically accommodates small values. On rare occasions, a significantly larger value might be inserted. Attempting to aggregate these values could lead to an integer overflow error, causing the entire aggregate query to fail, which is far from ideal.

Handling large values on the client or worker side, where the data is inserted, is one option. However, if you prefer to manage this issue at the database level, using saturation arithmetic could be a practical solution. The main idea of saturation arithmetic: if the the result of an operation exceeds the maximum allowed value or falls below the minimum allowed value, it is set to the respective maximum or minimum limit.

Some programming languages include saturation arithmetic in their standard libraries. For instance, both Rust and C++ libraries offer dedicated functions for this purpose.