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Home -> Community -> Mailing Lists -> Oracle-L -> RE: Storing single numbers in the database
I agree with you, Sandy. Yes, it does matter, particularly because this kind of thing leads to implicit type conversions, which can cause all sorts of heartache.
The developer doesn't want to translate? What, he thinks 0 and 1 are letters?
Paul Baumgartel
CREDIT SUISSE
Information Technology
Securities Processing Databases Americas
One Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10010
USA
Phone 212.538.1143
paul.baumgartel_at_credit-suisse.com
www.credit-suisse.com
From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org [mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org] On Behalf Of Sandra Becker
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 2:08 PM
To: oracle-l
Subject: Storing single numbers in the database
Linux RHEL4, Oracle 9.2.0.8 <http://9.2.0.8>
I have a developer who wants to define a column as CHAR(1) in an existing table. The only values this will ever hold are zero and one. I asked why he didn't define it as NUMBER(1) and the response was "Because I don't want to do the translation in my code." He believes that the column in this table will be heavily used when it gets to production. Since it's a new feature for the application, we have no way of knowing for sure how the customers will use it. They're kind of funny about deciding for themselves how they want to use the features.
Questions: Does it really matter if it's stored as NUMBER(1) or CHAR(1)? What are the ramifications, if any, of defining the column as CHAR(1)?
I personally believe that if you want to store a numerical value and ONLY a numerical value in a column, you should define the column as NUMBER.
Sandy
http://www.credit-suisse.com/legal/en/disclaimer_email_ib.html
-- http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-lReceived on Tue Jun 05 2007 - 13:50:27 CDT
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