title: heroku - postgres - operator does not exist
body: <p>I decided to give heroku a try (to save time) but I discovered they use PostgreSQL which I know little about.  The <a href="https://github.com/alexreisner/geocoder" rel="nofollow">geocoder</a> gem works great with MySQL but PostgreSQL is throwing an error.</p>
  
  <p>I think this error is saying lat is not defined?</p>
  
  <pre><code>ActiveRecord::StatementInvalid (PGError: ERROR:  operator does not exist: numeric - character varying
  LINE 1: ...58.755864232 * 2 * ASIN(SQRT(POWER(SIN((37.358151 - lat) * P...
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Full log</p>
  
  <pre><code>2011-06-07T09:18:52-07:00 heroku[nginx]: GET /api/v1/locations.json?point=37.358151%2C%20-121.628265%20&amp;radius=24.374397 HTTP/1.1 | 66.192.149.18 | 963 | http | 500
  2011-06-07T16:19:12+00:00 app[web.1]: 
  2011-06-07T16:19:12+00:00 app[web.1]: 
  2011-06-07T16:19:12+00:00 app[web.1]: Started GET "/api/v1/locations.json?point=37.358151%2C%20-121.628265%20&amp;radius=24.374397" for 66.192.149.18 at Tue Jun 07 09:19:12 -0700 2011
  2011-06-07T16:19:12+00:00 app[web.1]: 
  2011-06-07T16:19:12+00:00 app[web.1]: ActiveRecord::StatementInvalid (PGError: ERROR:  operator does not exist: numeric - character varying
  2011-06-07T16:19:12+00:00 app[web.1]: LINE 1: ...58.755864232 * 2 * ASIN(SQRT(POWER(SIN((37.358151 - lat) * P...
  2011-06-07T16:19:12+00:00 app[web.1]:                                                              ^
  2011-06-07T16:19:12+00:00 app[web.1]: HINT:  No operator matches the given name and argument type(s). You might need to add explicit type casts.
  2011-06-07T16:19:12+00:00 app[web.1]: : SELECT  *, 3958.755864232 * 2 * ASIN(SQRT(POWER(SIN((37.358151 - lat) * PI() / 180 / 2), 2) + COS(37.358151 * PI() / 180) * COS(lat * PI() / 180) * POWER(SIN((-121.628265 - lng) * PI() / 180 / 2), 2) )) AS distance, CAST(DEGREES(ATAN2( RADIANS(lng - -121.628265), RADIANS(lat - 37.358151))) + 360 AS decimal) % 360 AS bearing FROM "locations" WHERE (lat BETWEEN 37.0053760059938 AND 37.7109259940062 AND lng BETWEEN -122.072086383576 AND -121.184443616424) GROUP BY locations.id,locations.name,locations.bounding_box,locations.created_at,locations.updated_at,locations.street,locations.postal,locations.city,locations.state,locations.country,locations.description,locations.lat,locations.lng,locations.phone,locations.has_lights,locations.is_free,locations.is_outdoors,locations.are_pads_required,locations.has_concrete,locations.has_wood,locations.cd_page_id HAVING 3958.755864232 * 2 * ASIN(SQRT(POWER(SIN((37.358151 - lat) * PI() / 180 / 2), 2) + COS(37.358151 * PI() / 180) * COS(lat * PI() / 180) * POWER(SIN((-121.6
  2011-06-07T16:19:12+00:00 app[web.1]: 28265 - lng) * PI() / 180 / 2), 2) )) &lt;= 24.374397 ORDER BY 3958.755864232 * 2 * ASIN(SQRT(POWER(SIN((37.358151 - lat) * PI() / 180 / 2), 2) + COS(37.358151 * PI() / 180) * COS(lat * PI() / 180) * POWER(SIN((-121.628265 - lng) * PI() / 180 / 2), 2) )) ASC LIMIT 100):
  </code></pre>