Re: Storing trailing zeros in mantissa

"Jim Kennedy" <kennedy-down_with_spammers_at_no_spam.comcast.net> wrote in message news:mvvWa.28555$Oz4.8824_at_rwcrnsc54...
> Noons is correct. Jeff, the difference is purely one of display and not
one
> of actual percision. If you are using an interface (eg oci, odbc, etc.)
tp
> retrieve this data it will come back as a number and the added 0 wouldn't
> make sense. (it is a number) In sqlplus you will see it depending upon
how
> you have set your formatting to be, but that has nothing to do with what
the
> number is.(eg put in a number 10.12345432123 and you will probably get
back
> a displayed number that displays less percision, but if you use oci etc.
you
> will retrieve the full percision of the number. You can have the display
> display more decimals if you set the numeric format to be larger.) In
> short, if your other program wants strings (and not numbers) then I would
> still store the number as a number, but just do a
> to_char(myColumn,formatMask) to get it to "look right". See SQL Reference
> guide for the formatMask that will work for you.
>
> Jim
>
> "Noons" <wizofoz2k_at_yahoo.com.au.nospam> wrote in message
> news:3f2a7f6d$0$10357$afc38c87_at_news.optusnet.com.au...
> > and if he wants to return it with a
> > fixed two decimal, all that's needed
> > is a mask function, no?
> >
> > --
> > Cheers
> > Nuno Souto
> > wizofoz2k_at_yahoo.com.au.nospam
> > "Eric Parker" <eric.parkerthedross_at_virgin.net> wrote in message
> > news:3GuWa.2608$Kx1.32702_at_newsfep4-glfd.server.ntli.net...
> > > "Jeff Turner" <zigjst_at_hotmail.com> wrote in message
> > > news:c73aa58a.0308010604.2c1f4ca9_at_posting.google.com...
> > > > I have a column defined as NUMBER(18,2) and want to store a value
of,
> > > > say, "10.20" in this column. Oracle returns the value to me as
"10.2"
> > > > instead of "10.20", but in my application (scientific in nature)
there
> > > > is a difference in "10.2" and "10.20".
> > > >
> > > > After browsing the ng's, it seems this is normal behavior in
Oracle...
> > > > Is this true? Does anyone know any magical "switches" I can flip to
> > > > tell Oracle to store trailing zeros?
> > > >
> > > > Thanks,
> > > > Jeff
> > >
> > > Jeff
> > >
> > > If you really need to store and be able to distinguish between 10.2
and
> > > 10.20
> > > then you will have to store them as VARCHAR2s. As numeric values they
> are
> > > identical.
> > >
> > > HTH
> > >
> > > eric
> > >
> > > --
> > > Remove the dross to contact me directly
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>

I believe the OP wants to be able to remember if he receives '10.20' as opposed to '10.2'. I suppose he could add a second column that held the number of zeros at the right but if he stores the values just as numeric he will have lost this original information.

eric

--
Remove the dross to contact me directly