"Brian Peasland" <dba_at_remove_spam.peasland.com> wrote in message
news:3F2E7367.9795E0B8_at_remove_spam.peasland.com...
> > As you said, I'm not a scientinst, but I don't remember being taught
> > that 10.2 is any different from 10.20 - unless you are thinking of
> > heading down the rounding from 99.999 to 99.99 route ? (you know, 10.201
> > becomed 10.20 and so *is* different from 10.2 which is 10.2 ?)
>
> 10.2 is no different than 10.20, no matter how you slice it. They are
> the same number. Just pull it out with a format mask if you want it
> represented differently.
>
> The idea that the trailing zero has "meaning", i.e. plus or minus some
> factor, is not a scientific approach. If I meant 10.205 or 10.195, then
> I'd store that number, pure and simple. If this trailing zero were
> allowed to hold meaning (other than zero), then how do you handle that
> when you perform computations with these numbers? You're better off
> coming up with your own metric space......
>
>
> Cheers,
> Brian
>
> P.S. I'm not a scientist, I just play one on tv.
>
>
> --
> ===================================================================
>
> Brian Peasland
> dba_at_remove_spam.peasland.com
>
> Remove the "remove_spam." from the email address to email me.
>
>
> "I can give it to you cheap, quick, and good. Now pick two out of
> the three"
Brian,
You are correct, but I think what he wants (his requirement) is to also know
what the precision of the number is. This implies either another column
that indicates the precision or an object type that has a number and its
precision.
Jim
Received on Mon Aug 04 2003 - 21:03:51 CDT
