What causes ORA-01438?

Source numeric value has more digits than the Oracle NUMBER(p,s) column allows. Column definition was created with too narrow precision and the data has grown. Decimal shift error — value is 1000x larger than expected due to unit mismatch. Floating-point rounding in upstream transformations produces extra digits

How do I fix ORA-01438?

Step 1: Check the column definition: `SELECT column_name, data_precision, data_scale FROM all_tab_columns WHERE table_name = ' ';`.. Step 2: Widen the column: `ALTER TABLE t MODIFY col NUMBER(18, 4);`.. Step 3: Add ROUND or TRUNC to the source value to fit within precision: `ROUND(source_col, 2)`.. Step 4: Validate the source data range — an unusually large value may indicate a data quality issue.. Step 5: Use TO_CHAR to inspect the exact value causing the overflow.

Medium severitydata

Oracle Database Error:
ORA-01438

What does this error mean?

A numeric value being inserted or updated has more digits than the column's defined precision allows.

Common causes

1Source numeric value has more digits than the Oracle NUMBER(p,s) column allows
2Column definition was created with too narrow precision and the data has grown
3Decimal shift error — value is 1000x larger than expected due to unit mismatch
4Floating-point rounding in upstream transformations produces extra digits

How to fix it

1Step 1: Check the column definition: `SELECT column_name, data_precision, data_scale FROM all_tab_columns WHERE table_name = '<TABLE>';`.
2Step 2: Widen the column: `ALTER TABLE t MODIFY col NUMBER(18, 4);`.
3Step 3: Add ROUND or TRUNC to the source value to fit within precision: `ROUND(source_col, 2)`.
4Step 4: Validate the source data range — an unusually large value may indicate a data quality issue.
5Step 5: Use TO_CHAR to inspect the exact value causing the overflow.

Example log output

ORA-01438: value larger than specified precision allowed for this column
SQL: INSERT INTO metrics (amount) VALUES (9999999999.99)  -- column is NUMBER(10,2)

Frequently asked questions

How do I find which column is too narrow?

The error message includes the offending value and may name the column. Cross-reference with `all_tab_columns` to find the NUMBER(p,s) definition, then compare it against the max value in the source.

Source · docs.oracle.com/error-help/db/ora-01438