pingcap / pingcap/tidb

result of LENGTH(CAST(1e100 AS CHAR)) is incosistent with mysql

Open
#61,142 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
component/expression severity/moderate sig/execution type/bug
Dominant language
Go
Stars
40.5k
Forks
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PR merge metrics
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Description

## Bug Report

Please answer these questions before submitting your issue. Thanks!

### 1. Minimal reproduce step (Required)
```
SELECT LENGTH(CAST(1e100 AS CHAR));
```
### 2. What did you expect to see? (Required)
```
MySQL [(none)]> SELECT LENGTH(CAST(1e100 AS CHAR));
+-----------------------------+
| LENGTH(CAST(1e100 AS CHAR)) |
+-----------------------------+
| 5 |
+-----------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
```

### 3. What did you see instead (Required)
```
MySQL [testdb_1747239281507]> SELECT LENGTH(CAST(1e100 AS CHAR));
+-----------------------------+
| LENGTH(CAST(1e100 AS CHAR)) |
+-----------------------------+
| 101 |
+-----------------------------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)
```

### 4. What is your TiDB version? (Required)

```
MySQL [testdb_1747239281507]> select tidb_version();
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| tidb_version() |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Release Version: v8.5.1
Edition: Community
Git Commit Hash: fea86c8e35ad4a86a5e1160701f99493c2ee547c
Git Branch: HEAD
UTC Build Time: 2025-01-16 07:38:34
GoVersion: go1.23.4
Race Enabled: false
Check Table Before Drop: false
Store: tikv |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
```

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by running SELECT LENGTH(CAST(1e100 AS CHAR)); on TiDB and MySQL, then trace the CAST and LENGTH handling in the Go codebase. Done means TiDB returns the MySQL-compatible result of 5 and includes regression coverage for this query.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
go, mysql
Domain
database
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
42/100

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