SET ARITHIGNORE (Transact-SQL)

Applies to: SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance Azure Synapse Analytics Analytics Platform System (PDW) SQL analytics endpoint in Microsoft Fabric Warehouse in Microsoft Fabric

Controls whether error messages are returned from overflow or divide-by-zero errors during a query.

Transact-SQL syntax conventions

Syntax

-- Syntax for SQL Server and Azure SQL Database and Microsoft Fabric

SET ARITHIGNORE { ON | OFF }
-- Syntax for Azure Synapse Analytics and Parallel Data Warehouse  

SET ARITHIGNORE OFF

Note

This syntax is not supported by serverless SQL pool in Azure Synapse Analytics.

Remarks

The SET ARITHIGNORE setting only controls whether an error message is returned. SQL Server returns a NULL in a calculation involving an overflow or divide-by-zero error, regardless of this setting. The SET ARITHABORT setting can be used to determine whether the query is terminated. This setting does not affect errors occurring during INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements.

If either SET ARITHABORT or SET ARITHIGNORE is OFF and SET ANSI_WARNINGS is ON, SQL Server still returns an error message when encountering divide-by-zero or overflow errors.

The setting of SET ARITHIGNORE is set at execute or run time and not at parse time.

To view the current setting for this setting, run the following query.

DECLARE @ARITHIGNORE VARCHAR(3) = 'OFF';  
IF ( (128 & @@OPTIONS) = 128 ) SET @ARITHIGNORE = 'ON';  
SELECT @ARITHIGNORE AS ARITHIGNORE;  

Permissions

Requires membership in the public role.

Examples

The following example demonstrates using both SET ARITHIGNORE settings with both types of query errors.

SET ARITHABORT OFF;  
SET ANSI_WARNINGS OFF  
GO  
  
PRINT 'Setting ARITHIGNORE ON';  
GO  
-- SET ARITHIGNORE ON and testing.  
SET ARITHIGNORE ON;  
GO  
SELECT 1 / 0 AS DivideByZero;  
GO  
SELECT CAST(256 AS TINYINT) AS Overflow;  
GO  
  
PRINT 'Setting ARITHIGNORE OFF';  
GO  
-- SET ARITHIGNORE OFF and testing.  
SET ARITHIGNORE OFF;  
GO  
SELECT 1 / 0 AS DivideByZero;  
GO  
SELECT CAST(256 AS TINYINT) AS Overflow;  
GO  

Examples: Azure Synapse Analytics and Analytics Platform System (PDW)

The following example demonstrates the divide by zero and the overflow errors. This example does not return an error message for these errors because ARITHIGNORE is OFF.

-- SET ARITHIGNORE OFF and testing.  
SET ARITHIGNORE OFF;  
SELECT 1 / 0 AS DivideByZero;  
SELECT CAST(256 AS TINYINT) AS Overflow;  

See Also

SET Statements (Transact-SQL)
SET ARITHABORT (Transact-SQL)