interval_field_overflow (SQLSTATE 22015) signals that an INTERVAL literal or arithmetic result exceeds the allowed range for one of its fields.
interval_field_overflow (PostgreSQL Error 22015) means an INTERVAL value has a field outside its valid range, such as 25 hours or 1000000 months. Trim the literal, use justify_interval, or switch to NUMERIC to resolve the overflow and run the statement successfully.
PostgreSQL Error 22015
The interval_field_overflow error appears when PostgreSQL cannot store an INTERVAL literal or computed value because one of its sub-fields exceeds the allowed bounds.
Typical examples include specifying 25 hours, 61 minutes, or extremely large year counts that overflow the internal 64-bit representation.
The error fires during INSERT, UPDATE, SELECT calculations, or CAST operations that involve INTERVAL types.
It can also arise in functions that return INTERVAL values.
Version 9.6 and later follow the same validation rules, so the behaviour is consistent across modern PostgreSQL releases.
Leaving the overflow unresolved blocks data loads, prevents schedule calculations, and breaks time-series queries. Production ETL jobs may fail until the offending value is corrected.
Quick remediation keeps pipelines healthy and avoids silent truncation or data corruption in downstream analytics.
Literal field overflow is the most common trigger.
Writing INTERVAL '25:00' or INTERVAL '100000 months' exceeds allowed hours or months limits.
Arithmetic overflow happens when adding large intervals, multiplying by numbers, or using age() on far-future dates.
Validate literals before execution. Ensure hours are 0-23, minutes 0-59, months 0-11, and so on.
Break huge periods into multiple fields or store them in NUMERIC columns.
Use justify_interval() to normalise values that mix units.
Incorrect literal - Change INTERVAL '25 hours' to INTERVAL '1 day 1 hour'.
Overflow after math - Wrap expressions with justify_interval(age(...)) to auto-carry excess units.
Always parameterise interval values and bound-check user input in application code.
Leverage Galaxy’s AI copilot to lint queries and warn when literals exceed safe ranges during code review.
datetime_field_overflow arises when TIMESTAMP fields overflow.
Fix by using valid date parts.
numeric_value_out_of_range occurs with NUMERIC overflow. Cast to BIGINT or clamp the value.
.
The validation rules have remained stable since 9.6, so upgrading rarely fixes the error.
PostgreSQL stores months and microseconds in signed 64-bit integers. Practical limits are about 178 million years.
No. PostgreSQL enforces them to guarantee data integrity. You must supply valid values or use NUMERIC.
Galaxy’s AI copilot inspects INTERVAL literals and warns about out-of-range fields in real time, preventing the error before execution.
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