Oracle DB returning negative scale and 0 precision using JDBC

Question

I created a column in a table in my oracle DB of type NUMBER but in creating this column, I left the precision and scale blank.

When I was using the java.sql's ResultSetMetadata class to obtain the column information, I got back that the column precision was 0 and that the scale was -127.

The Oracle docs say that

The absence of precision and scale designators specifies the maximum range and precision for an Oracle number.

But what does that mean in this case? How is the precision being returned equal to 0 and the scale a negative number?

Should I be obtaining the scale and precision in a different manner?

Answer 1

Oracle returns -127 when the scale is unspecified. This is mentioned in the: JavaDoc.