Influxdb: Type conflict on insert int value in float field

[vmire]

Sometimes, float measurements are integers (no decimals)

HTTP INSERT POST BODY :

node13 B6A2021050000=25,BE6B820050000=24.6

results in an error :

write failed: field type conflict: input field "B6A2021050000" on measurement "node13" is type int64, already exists as type float

And if it's the first insert : field type is wrongly defined as integer
Following inserts errors :

write failed: field type conflict: input field "BE6B820050000" on measurement "node13" is type float64, already exists as type integer

InfluxDB version : 0.9.1

[beckettsean]

This is known and documented behavior, not a bug. The first point written to a series (on a given shard) determines the data type of the field(s).

The way to avoid it is to write all floats with a decimal, so rather than B6A2021050000=25 you write B6A2021050000=25.0, which parses as a float and will work.

Because of this and a host of other issues, we're considering ditching int64 as a user data type entirely and just making every number in the system (other than timestamps) a float64. There should be an explicit decision one way or the other with 0.9.3 in mid-August.

[beckettsean]

See "Fields" on https://influxdb.com/docs/v0.9/write_protocols/line.html for the documentation

[tanji]

What concerns me with this behavior, notably with telegraf, is that it causes the whole batch insert to fail, not only the data which conflicts:
2015/11/20 16:31:25 Error in output [influxdb-0]: Could not write to any InfluxDB server in cluster, retrying in 12.713705331s

[andyxning]

@beckettsean int and float has no difference. So, i think we can make it coherent to float. This also eases the situation above.

[gunnaraasen]

@andyxning The information in this issue is out of date. Integers can be written to line protocol by specifying an i after the number while any field value without an i is considered a float.

https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb/v0.13/troubleshooting/frequently_encountered_issues/#writing-integers

[abrkn]

What about the JSON protocol, @gunnaraasen?

[beckettsean]

@abrkn The JSON write protocol was deprecated with version 0.9.1, disabled in InfluxDB 0.11, and removed in version 0.12: https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb/v0.12/write_protocols/json/