Re: ANSI SQL COMPATIBILITY

From: Alan Macro <AlanM_at_hpdi.no-luncheon-meat.demon.co.uk>
Date: 1998/11/09
Message-ID: <910611518.3133.0.nnrp-04.9e98b131@news.demon.co.uk>#1/1

Bernhard Mandl wrote in message <71va96$5km$1_at_fleetstreet.Austria.EU.net>...
>Oracle has only very few Datatypes, in fact you must limit yourself to
 char,
>decimal and date if you want to be oracle / MS-SQL / db-2 compatible.
>
>matta_at_metratech.com wrote in message <71su9l$3hv$1_at_nnrp1.dejanews.com>...
>>Hello All
>>
>>Our system needs to be database vendor independent. We will be mainly
>>talking to MS SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase and maybe IBM-DB/2.
<SNIP>

Bernard's response is IMHO a bit misleading. The following is extracted from Oracle documentation:

ANSI SQL Datatype                                                  Oracle
Datatype
CHARACTER (n), CHAR(n)                                     CHAR(n)
NUMERIC (p, s), DECIMAL (p, s) DEC (p, a)        NUMBER (p, s)
INTEGER, INT, SMALLINT                                       NUMBER (38)
FLOAT (p), REAL, DOUBLE PRECISION             NUMBER

CHARACTER VARYING(n), CHAR VARYING(n) VARCHAR(n)

Thus you can use any ANSI datatype but implementation will vary by RDBMS. DECIMAL implemention varies most (IIRC as FLOAT in one - Informix?).

ORACLE NUMBER is implemented in "scientific notation" and can hold integers and decimal numbers with a precision of up to 38 digits.

Alan Macro
Hill Price Davison, London
AlanM_at_no-luncheon-meat.hpdi.demon.co.uk
"no-luncheon-meat."(i.e no spam) should be removed from email address Received on Mon Nov 09 1998 - 00:00:00 CST