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Informix Error -1346: Number is too large for a DECIMAL data type.

Cause and resolution

Number is too large for a DECIMAL data type.

The DECIMAL data type accommodates numbers from 10 to the -130th power through 10 to the 124th power in absolute value. The precision (number of significant digits) varies from 1 to 32; however, the source of this error is not the length of the number but its magnitude.

Oninit® Troubleshooting Guidance

Reasons / Common Causes

-1346 fires when a number's magnitude exceeds what DECIMAL can represent under 4GL — per the official guidance, DECIMAL accommodates absolute values from 10^-130 through 10^124, with 1 to 32 significant digits of precision; this error is specifically about the value's magnitude being too large, not its digit count. Note this documented upper bound (10^124) differs slightly from -1200's documented SQL-engine bound (1.000E+126) — the two pages may reflect different product contexts (4GL vs. the SQL engine directly) or documentation drift; verify against the current server/4GL version's own documentation if the exact boundary matters.

  1. A computed or literal value with an absolute magnitude greater than 10^124, per the official guidance — the direct, only cause.
  2. An arithmetic operation that overflows DECIMAL's upper bound, even though each individual operand was within range.
Solutions / Resolution
  1. Review the computation or literal producing the oversized value, per the official guidance, and confirm it's actually the intended magnitude.
  2. If the value is genuinely correct, reconsider whether DECIMAL is the right data type for values at this scale.
Examples
An overflowing computation
DEFINE v_result DECIMAL(32);
LET v_result = 1e100 * 1e50;
-- -1346: the product's magnitude exceeds DECIMAL's documented upper bound
Diagnostic Checks
  1. Check the actual magnitude of the value involved against DECIMAL's documented upper bound for the version/product context in use.
Related Errors / Related Topics
  • -1200 — "Number is too large for a DECIMAL data type." The same-named SQL-engine error, whose documented upper bound (1.000E+126) differs slightly from -1346's 4GL-documented bound (10^124) — worth reconciling against current documentation if the exact boundary matters.
  • -1347 — "Number is too small for a DECIMAL data type." The mirror-image restriction, for magnitude below DECIMAL's minimum rather than above its maximum.

A value's magnitude exceeded DECIMAL's documented upper bound — review the computation or literal that produced it.