take care of minus !

Imagine this script (10gR2) :
set echo on
select BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY -
BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY from DUAL;

Run it and you would will get an expected result!

SQL> select BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY -
> BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY from DUAL;

BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY
----------------------
Inf
The issue in sqlplus is that – at the end of line means “query continues next line”. The correct answer of Inf-Inf is Nan.

SQL> select BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY
-BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY from DUAL;

BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY-BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY
---------------------------------------------
Nan

2 thoughts on “take care of minus !”

  1. Nicolas

    Thanks to recall us that point, but the problem is not limited with BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY usage :
    SQL> select 1 –
    > 1 from dual;
    select 1 1 from dual
    *
    ERROR at line 1:
    ORA-00923: FROM keyword not found where expected
    …where 0 would be expected.

    All the best !

Comments are closed.