Bug: object with decimals are converted to strings

[bakman2]

Describe the bug

When setting an object, floating numbers are converted to strings

Steps to reproduce

$ DATA="create device:test1 set data = {'humidity':86.15,'last_seen':'2022-09-11T15:24:21.578Z','linkquality':127}"

$ curl -X POST -u "root:root" -H "NS: test" -H "DB: test" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d "${DATA}" http://10.0.0.224:8000/sql

[{"time":"14.15968ms","status":"OK","result":[{"data":{"humidity":"86.15","last_seen":"2022-09-11T15:24:21.000000578Z",...

Tested via both REST/curl and node.js (using node-red).

Expected behaviour

A floating number

SurrealDB version

surreal 1.0.0-beta.7 for linux on x86_64

Contact Details

No response

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

[clawcastle]

This seems to be an issue related to how the bigdecimal crate represents the floating point numbers using strings. I've made a pull request that might fix it, but if anyone has input/ideas on how to do it better that is very welcome :)

[finnbear]

This issue actually applies to decimals, but SurrealDB currently defaults non-integers to decimals not floats:

> create thing:float set num = <float> 4.2;
[{"time":"543.52µs","status":"OK","result":[{"id":"thing:float","num":4.2}]}]
> create thing:decimal set num = <decimal> 4.2;
[{"time":"453.885µs","status":"OK","result":[{"id":"thing:decimal","num":"4.2"}]}]

As a workaround, you can cast to <float> like the above :)

[clawcastle]

As a workaround, you can cast to <float> like the above :)

But wouldn't this potentially truncate the decimal value, since float is represented internally by the f64 type while decimal is represented by the bigdecimal type?

[finnbear]

As a workaround, you can cast to <float> like the above :)

But wouldn't this potentially truncate the decimal value, since float is represented internally by the f64 type while decimal is represented by the bigdecimal type?

Yes, and this isn't ideal, but I think that is part of the reason why BigDecimal likes to serialize to string. No matter what language you use SurrealDB with, the value wont be truncated. Serializing the BigDecimal as a float would lead to truncation if deserialized in a language like JavaScript which treats JSON numbers as floats.

[clawcastle]

I see your point - unless the client somehow deserializes it to some arbitrary-length decimal type like bigdecimal it will potentially get truncated. I think I'm going to decline my PR (#171 ) then, as it doesn't solve the problem after all

[bakman2]

@finnbear I've updated the title

[patrickoppel]

Ran into the same issue when using the Rust client library with the latest nightly version of the database (v1.0.0-beta.8

`#[derive(Debug,Serialize,Deserialize)]
struct Eps {
bat: Battery,
}

#[derive(Debug,Serialize,Deserialize)]
struct Battery {
volt: u16,
curr: i16,
power: f64,
temp: f64,
}

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<()> {
static db: Surreal = Surreal::init();

db.connect::<Ws>("localhost:8000").await?;

db.signin(Root {
    username: "root",
    password: "root",
}).await?;

db.use_ns("namespace").use_db("database").await?;

let b = Battery {
    volt: 15000,
    curr: 250,
    power: 3.75,
    temp: 20.1,
};

let mut eps: Eps = db
    .create("eps")
    .content(Eps {
        bat: b,
    })
    .await?;`

And I get the following error:
Error: Api(FromValue { value: Object(Object({"bat": Object(Object({"curr": Number(Int(250)), "power": Number(Decimal(BigDecimal("3.75"))), "temp": Number(Decimal(BigDecimal("20.100000381469727"))), "volt": Number(Int(15000))})), "id": Thing(Thing { tb: "eps", id: String("jc3mpnl87dwdszfkeqby") })})), error: "invalid type: string "3.75", expected f32" })

As described above here the f64 inputs are casted as decimals instead of f64.

Is there any work on this, or anything I can do?

[rushmorem]

This is no longer an issue on v1.