Re: What data type best used for money

From: "Phillip Smith" <phillip(dot)smith(at)weatherbeeta(dot)com(dot)au>
To: <niccguard-dev(at)yahoo(dot)com>, <pgsql-novice(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: What data type best used for money
Date: 2007-10-31 23:25:58
Message-ID: 004201c81c15$645a4e70$9b0014ac@wbaus090
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How accurate do you need to be? Retail / POS level (ie, 2 decimal places)
or multi-currency with exchange rates etc (4+ decimal places)

Personally I use numeric and don't have any problems. Most of my fields only
need 2 decimals (RRP, wholesale prices etc), so I define them as
numeric(10,2) - I reckon I'm pretty safe to assume our company isn't going
to sell anything individually worth over $99,999,999.99

It actually helps identify problems when people make boo-boos - like
entering a 6 digit product code as the order quantity on a sales order!

Cheers,

~p

-----Original Message-----
From: pgsql-novice-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org
[mailto:pgsql-novice-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org] On Behalf Of
niccguard-dev(at)yahoo(dot)com
Sent: Thursday, 1 November 2007 06:34
To: pgsql-novice(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: [NOVICE] What data type best used for money

Creating a database where monetary values will be stored and of course
retrieved with calculations. What data types are best to use in this sort
of environment?

money is limited in quantity

numeric - documentation states "arithmetic on numeric values is very slow
compared to the integer types"

Just wanted to get some feedback on what seems to be the better way to go
and 'why'.

Thanks,

Aaron

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