Incorrect DECIMAL value when inserting MySQL

Question

The error I'm getting is:

ERROR 1366 (HY000): Incorrect DECIMAL value: '0' for column '' at row -1

I'm trying to normalize a database and ensuring that the data types are correct. Inserting data from BASE_TABLE into a new table named Inventors.

This is the query I'm using to insert. If I take a single row manually from the select query it can correctly insert into the Inventors table.

However, running the query like this I instantly get the error above.

INSERT INTO
    Inventors(ID,Firstname,Middlename,Lastname,Country,Latitude,Longitude)
SELECT DISTINCT
    Inventor_ID as ID,
    Firstname,
    Middlename,
    Lastname,
    Country,
    cast(Latitude as decimal(11,6)) as Latitude,
    cast(Longitude as decimal(11,6)) as Longitude
FROM
    BASE_TABLE

Here is the row which fails to insert in the select query:

ID          Firstname   Middlename  Lastname    Country     Latitude    Longitude
04308666-3  RICHARD     RICHARD     JUNG                    0.000000    0.000000

Inventors create query:

CREATE TABLE `Inventors` (
  `ID` varchar(55) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `Firstname` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Middlename` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Lastname` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Country` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Latitude` decimal(11,8) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Longitude` decimal(11,8) DEFAULT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`ID`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

BASE_TABLE create query:

CREATE TABLE `BASE_TABLE` (
  `Firstname` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Middlename` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Lastname` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Country` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Zipcode` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Latitude` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Longitude` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `InvSeq` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Patent` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `AppYear` year(4) DEFAULT NULL,
  `ApplyYear` year(4) DEFAULT NULL,
  `PubYear` year(4) NOT NULL,
  `AppDate` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Assignee` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `AsgNum` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Class` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Coauthor` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Invnum` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Invnum_N` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Record_ID` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  `Inventor_ID` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Match_Level` tinyint(4) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Company_ID` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Classification` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Citing` mediumint(9) DEFAULT NULL,
  `Cited` mediumint(9) DEFAULT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`Record_ID`),
  KEY `Inventor_ID` (`Inventor_ID`),
  KEY `Patent` (`Patent`),
  KEY `Patent_2` (`Patent`,`Inventor_ID`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

Can anyone help me on this issue?

Answer 1

I found the problem. Latitude (VARCHAR) and Longitude (VARCHAR) in BASE_TABLE had the value of an empty string ''. This caused MySQL to cast to an incorrect value for some reason.

I solved this by replacing the empty string with NULL in the select query (See below).

INSERT INTO
    Inventors
SELECT DISTINCT
    Inventor_ID as ID,
    Firstname,
    Middlename,
    Lastname,
    Country,
    IF(Latitude='',NULL,CAST(Latitude as decimal(11,6))) as Latitude,
    IF(Longitude='',NULL,CAST(Longitude as decimal(11,6))) as Longitude
FROM
    BASE_TABLE