On 22 Oct 2007, at 16:43, Adam wrote:

> If ZipCode refers to what I believe it does, then using an integer
> type field would be far more appropriate.

Yes, it would, but that would require me to load the domain of the
column and check every value - or at least do some sort of fancy
select count(distinct field) from table where field = floor(field))
test before creating the table. Sadly, I have a lot of constraints
because this is a general purpose tool and I have to balance this
sort of overhead against how often it occurs. Still, joining on a
real ought to be a red flag (after all, it never occurred to me to
index it in the first place!) But even so, I think maybe the correct
place to fix this in general would be during Excel metadata
discovery. Then it would be bound as an integer and Firebird (not to
mention the rest of the system!) would not have to worry about it
unless it was truly a real. There could be some other benefits for
presentation as well.

Thanks for all the food for thought!
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Richard Wesley Senior Software Developer Tableau
Software
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