fix: keep exact negative powers of ten under default precision

decimal.go

@@ -907,7 +907,7 @@ func (d Decimal) PowInt32(exp int32) (Decimal, error) {
 	}
 
 	if isExpNeg {
-		return New(1, 0).DivRound(result, int32(PowPrecisionNegativeExponent)), nil
+		return divForNegativePow(result, int32(PowPrecisionNegativeExponent)), nil
 	}
 
 	return result, nil
@@ -955,12 +955,30 @@ func (d Decimal) powBigIntWithPrecision(exp *big.Int, precision int32) (Decimal,
 	}
 
 	if isExpNeg {
-		return New(1, 0).DivRound(result, precision), nil
+		return divForNegativePow(result, precision), nil
 	}
 
 	return result, nil
 }
 
+// divForNegativePow computes 1/result with DivRound(precision).
+// If the configured precision is too small to represent a non-zero reciprocal
+// (e.g. 10**-17 with PowPrecisionNegativeExponent=16), retry with enough digits
+// so exact powers of ten are not collapsed to zero (#394).
+func divForNegativePow(result Decimal, precision int32) Decimal {
+	q := New(1, 0).DivRound(result, precision)
+	if !q.IsZero() || result.IsZero() {
+		return q
+	}
+	needed := int32(result.NumDigits())
+	if needed < precision {
+		needed = precision
+	}
+	// One extra digit covers borderline powers of ten such as 10**n (n digits of 1
+	// followed by zeros? 10**17 has 18 digits) — NumDigits already returns 18.
+	return New(1, 0).DivRound(result, needed)
+}
+
 // ExpHullAbrham calculates the natural exponent of decimal (e to the power of d) using Hull-Abraham algorithm.
 // OverallPrecision argument specifies the overall precision of the result (integer part + decimal part).
 //

decimal_test.go

@@ -2870,6 +2870,33 @@ func TestDecimal_PowInt32(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestDecimal_PowNegativeIntegerPowersOfTen(t *testing.T) {
+	// Regression for #394: default PowPrecisionNegativeExponent (16) used to
+	// DivRound 1/10**n to zero for n > 16 even though the value is exact.
+	for _, exp := range []int32{-16, -17, -18, -20} {
+		base := NewFromInt(10)
+		got, err := base.PowInt32(exp)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("PowInt32(10, %d) unexpected error: %v", exp, err)
+		}
+		want := New(1, exp) // 10**(-n) == 1e-n
+		if !got.Equal(want) {
+			t.Errorf("PowInt32(10, %d) = %s, want %s", exp, got, want)
+		}
+		got2 := base.Pow(NewFromInt(int64(exp)))
+		if !got2.Equal(want) {
+			t.Errorf("Pow(10, %d) = %s, want %s", exp, got2, want)
+		}
+		got3, err := base.PowBigInt(big.NewInt(int64(exp)))
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("PowBigInt(10, %d) unexpected error: %v", exp, err)
+		}
+		if !got3.Equal(want) {
+			t.Errorf("PowBigInt(10, %d) = %s, want %s", exp, got3, want)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
 func TestDecimal_PowInt32_UndefinedResult(t *testing.T) {
 	base := RequireFromString("0")