SQLSTATE 22015Severity lowLab verified

Incident brief

Interval field overflow

An INTERVAL literal whose field value exceeds the storage limits of the interval type raises this data exception; here a months value larger than a signed 32-bit integer overflowed.

Reproduced on PostgreSQL 18.4Verified 2026-07-24 (isolated lab, PostgreSQL 18.4)Reviewed by Verified against PostgreSQL 18.4 in an isolated lab environment

In 10 seconds

What: Interval field overflow
What triggers it: Write an INTERVAL literal with a field value larger than the type can store (for example billions of months).
The fix: Use interval field values within range — the months field fits in a signed 32-bit integer.
Proof: Reproduced on PostgreSQL 18.4 → A single SELECT reproduces SQLSTATE 22015; the oversized months field is rejected while the literal is evaluated.

The fix

What to do right now

The immediate, application-level response to this error.

Use interval field values within range — the months field fits in a signed 32-bit integer.
For very long spans, model them differently (a start date plus a smaller interval, or a numeric day count).

Fix — SQL

-- Use an interval field value within the type's range.
SELECT INTERVAL '1 month';

Diagnose

See it live on the server

Run these against the affected instance to confirm the diagnosis before you act.

Standard triage — not specific to this error

These are canonical PostgreSQL system-catalog queries, shown as SQL to run. No sample output is attached because this is general triage, not a captured lab transcript.

This SQLSTATE does not have an error-specific live snapshot yet. These are the canonical system-catalog queries you run against the affected server to see the problem in real time — standard triage, not a reproduced transcript.

What is running right now

Active backends, how long each has been running, and what it is waiting on.

SELECT pid,
       state,
       wait_event_type,
       wait_event,
       now() - query_start AS running_for,
       left(query, 80)     AS query
FROM   pg_stat_activity
WHERE  state <> 'idle'
  AND  pid <> pg_backend_pid()
ORDER  BY running_for DESC NULLS LAST;

Who is blocking whom

Turn raw blocking PIDs into the actual queries on both sides of the wait.

SELECT blocked.pid    AS blocked_pid,
       blocked.query  AS blocked_query,
       blocking.pid   AS blocking_pid,
       blocking.query AS blocking_query
FROM   pg_stat_activity AS blocked
JOIN   LATERAL unnest(pg_blocking_pids(blocked.pid)) AS b(pid) ON true
JOIN   pg_stat_activity AS blocking ON blocking.pid = b.pid
WHERE  cardinality(pg_blocking_pids(blocked.pid)) > 0;

Locks that are still waiting

Every lock a backend has requested but not yet been granted.

SELECT l.pid,
       l.locktype,
       l.mode,
       l.granted,
       COALESCE(c.relname, l.transactionid::text) AS object
FROM   pg_locks l
LEFT   JOIN pg_class c ON c.oid = l.relation
WHERE  NOT l.granted
ORDER  BY l.pid;

Reproduce & verify

A real, single-session PostgreSQL reproduction

A literal transcript of SQL run against a live PostgreSQL instance in an isolated lab — the commands below are exactly what was executed.

1Write an INTERVAL literal with a field value larger than the type can store (for example billions of months).
2PostgreSQL parses the literal and tries to fit the months field into a 32-bit integer.
3The value overflows and the statement aborts with SQLSTATE 22015.

A retention calculation multiplied a base interval by a large factor and produced a months value far beyond what the interval type can hold.

Schema setup

-- The error is self-contained in one statement; no schema is required.
SELECT 'no schema needed' AS setup_note;

Writing an out-of-range interval field

SELECT INTERVAL '2147483648 months';

The session continues normally

SELECT 'ok' AS session_after_error;

What PostgreSQL actually returned

Schema setup output

    setup_note    
------------------
 no schema needed
(1 row)

Writing an out-of-range interval field output

ERROR:  interval field value out of range: "2147483648 months"
LINE 1: SELECT INTERVAL '2147483648 months';
                        ^

The session continues normally output

 session_after_error 
---------------------
 ok
(1 row)

Related & next steps

Follow the thread

Everything this error touches — jump straight to the sibling error, term, runbook, or parameter.

Verification

PG 18.4

Last verified: 2026-07-24 (isolated lab, PostgreSQL 18.4)
Reviewed by: Verified against PostgreSQL 18.4 in an isolated lab environment
Audit status: reviewed