The error appears when any argument passed to the width_bucket() function is NULL, NaN, or when the lower and upper bounds are equal.
invalid_argument_for_width_bucket_function happens when PostgreSQL receives NULL, NaN, or identical bound values in width_bucket(). Provide non-NULL numeric inputs and make the lower bound different from the upper bound to resolve the error.
invalid_argument_for_width_bucket_function
The error signals that width_bucket() received an argument it cannot process, such as NULL, NaN, or an invalid bound pair. PostgreSQL aborts the query and returns SQLSTATE 2201G.
width_bucket() expects four numeric inputs: the operand, lower bound, upper bound, and bucket count. All must be finite, non-NULL numbers, and the bounds must differ. Violating these rules triggers the error.
The error often shows up in analytics queries that bin continuous values, such as histograms or cohort analyses. It is common in ETL pipelines, BI dashboards, and ad-hoc queries created in Galaxy or psql.
Because width_bucket() is evaluated row by row, a single bad value can fail the entire statement, making fast diagnosis critical.
Unresolved errors halt data transformations, break dashboards, and block downstream jobs. Cleaning inputs and validating bounds restores query reliability and avoids cascading failures.
No. width_bucket() only accepts numeric types. Cast timestamps to epoch seconds or another numeric form first.
Yes. Filter NULLs out or wrap the call in COALESCE to supply a sentinel value, then bucket the cleaned data.
width_bucket() is evaluated per row. One invalid value throws the entire query unless you pre-filter or use a subquery with WHERE clauses.
Galaxy highlights rows containing NULL or NaN directly in the grid and offers AI-generated fixes to sanitize the inputs.
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