Division By Zero — SQLSTATE 22012

SQLSTATE 22012 condition division_by_zero class 22 — Data Exception severity ERROR
Reproduced & verified on PostgreSQL 14.23, 15.18, 16.14, 17.10 and 18.4 — identical message on every version.
Last reviewed 29 May 2025 · Reproduced live with the SQL on this page.

! Symptoms Free

A division or modulo operation had a zero divisor.

  • The error is written to the server log and returned to the client carrying SQLSTATE 22012.
  • Any driver (libpq, JDBC, psycopg, npgsql, pgx) surfaces this code in its error object so you can branch on it programmatically.
  • PL/pgSQL can trap it by name: EXCEPTION WHEN division_by_zero THEN.

1 Environment & reproduce Free

Severity: ERROR  |  PostgreSQL versions: 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

Reproduce with the exact statement and read the full message in the server log (raise log_min_messages / set log_min_error_statement for more context).

? Root cause Free

SQL evaluated x / 0 or x % 0.

Common causes:

  • A denominator column or expression evaluating to zero.
  • Aggregates producing a zero divisor.
  • Computed ratios over empty groups.

3 Recovery & verify Free

Steps to resolve 22012:

  1. Guard the divisor with x / NULLIF(divisor, 0) — it yields NULL instead of erroring.
  2. Use CASE WHEN divisor = 0 THEN ... ELSE x/divisor END.
  3. Filter out zero-divisor rows before the calculation.

Reference: PostgreSQL error codes — Class 22 (Data Exception).