On 6 Aug 2003 at 19:45, Helen Borrie wrote:

> What is the "real oil" on NUMERIC vs DECIMAL?
>
> Is the InterBase docco correct in saying that NUMERIC(p, s) has a precision
> of not more than p, whilst DECIMAL(p, s) has a precision of at least p?

AFAIK NUMERIC is the same as DECIMAL (i.e. can store more digits, at
least p) but can store less than DeCIMAL to certain defined precisions
due to smaller storage type:

DECIMAL precision 1 ¯4 INTEGER (32bit)
NUMERIC precision 1 ¯4 SMALLINT (16bit)

DECIMAL precision 5 ¯9 INTEGER (32bit)
NUMERIC precision 5 ¯9 INTEGER (32bit)

DECIMAL precision 10 ¯18 INT64 or DOUBLE PRECISION (64bit)
NUMERIC precision 10 ¯18 INT64 or DOUBLE PRECISION (64bit)

As you can see, they only differ in small precisions up to 4 digits.

Best regards
Pavel Cisar
http://www.ibphoenix.com
For all your upto date Firebird and
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