BUG: Inconsistent Behavior During Arithmetic Overflow

  - Microsoft SQL Server version 4.2 for OS/2

SYMPTOMS

Inconsistent behavior is observed when an arithmetic overflow occurs involving a tinyint or smallint.

If ARITHABORT is OFF, a batch of Transact-SQL commands will be terminated if an arithmetic overflow occurs in which constant or integer values are used to produce a result which overflows a smallint or tinyint target variable. If two values of the same datatype as the target variable are used to cause an arithmetic overflow, then no error will be raised and the command batch will not be terminated.

For example, if the following triggers an overflow, the current batch will be aborted if @var1 is a tinyint and @var2 and @var3 are integers; however, it will continue if @var2 and @var3 are tinyints.

   @var1 = @var2 * @var3

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in SQL Server version 4.2 for OS/2. We are researching this problem and will post new information here as it becomes available.