22013 — invalid_preceding_or_following_size

At a glance

A window-frame offset is negative in a fixed ROWS or GROUPS executor path. PostgreSQL 18.6 reports either frame starting offset must not be negative or frame ending offset must not be negative with SQLSTATE 22013.

Meaning

calculate_frame_offsets evaluates the start and end expressions once for a window scan. After a non-NULL value is copied, the ROWS and GROUPS branches interpret it as an int8 offset and reject a negative value with 22013. The NULL guards use 22004 and different primary messages. RANGE frames use type-specific in_range helpers: the integer helper rejects a negative offset, numeric rejects NaN, negative infinity, or a negative value, the float helper rejects NaN or a negative value, and the timestamp-with-interval helper rejects a negative interval. These helpers use the same 22013 primary, so the frame mode and resolved offset type are part of the diagnosis.

Diagnosis

Read the frame mode, endpoint named by the primary, and the evaluated offset expression. A negative start or end in ROWS/GROUPS is this condition. In RANGE, inspect the resolved offset type: a negative integer or interval, or the rejected NaN/negative numeric and float values, reaches the same code. A NULL start or end is 22004, not 22013. This is a frame-boundary validation failure, not a generic arithmetic overflow.

Response

For a ROWS or GROUPS endpoint, provide a non-negative int8-compatible offset; for RANGE, provide a value accepted by the resolved type-specific in_range helper. Provide a non-NULL value when NULL was the actual issue. Because the cited guard raises ERROR, roll back or roll back to an existing savepoint in an explicit transaction before retrying; autocommit can retry only the corrected statement.

Messages

• Primary, ERROR: frame starting offset must not be negative.
• Primary, ERROR: frame ending offset must not be negative.
• Primary, ERROR: invalid preceding or following size in window function for the cited type-specific RANGE offset guards.
• The cited guards add no DETAIL or HINT. NULL endpoints use SQLSTATE 22004 with frame starting offset must not be null or frame ending offset must not be null.

Versions

The locked catalogue records this condition from 11.0; fixed source coverage is PostgreSQL 18.6. The cited executor guard covers ROWS/GROUPS; the cited type-specific in_range helpers cover representative RANGE offsets.

Related

22004, 22012, 22003

Sources

• src/backend/executor/nodeWindowAgg.c#L2144-L2210 contains the start/end expression evaluation, NULL 22004 guards, and negative ROWS/GROUPS offset 22013 guards.
• Representative RANGE helpers use the same primary: int8.c#L400-L420 rejects negative integer offsets; numeric.c#L2690-L2715 rejects NaN, negative infinity, and negative numeric offsets; float.c#L1105-L1125 rejects NaN or negative float offsets; and timestamp.c#L3860-L3885 rejects negative interval offsets.

Runtime verification is not_run; this source evidence is not a runtime observation. The structured evidence record retains the two endpoint variants, the generic RANGE primary, and their scope.