Re: How many bytes to store a NUMBER?

In article <43mpec$1oh_at_neon3.neonramp.com> glc_at_neonramp.com writes:

> I keep getting different answers to this question. The Concepts book gives a
> formula which is something like precision/2+1. Oracle support
> says it is variable depending on the data, based on the formula from the book.
> I have also been told that all numbers take 22 bytes. I have done
> extensive testing myself and the results seem to be somewhere between the
> formula and 22. Does anybody know exactly how many bytes it
> takes to store a number?

FWIW, I have an embedded SQL program that uses the data dictionary tables to get definitions of my database and I found that for a variety of number precisions, the dataLength field is always 22.

-- 
Andrew Marlow
APM Software Ltd
20 Queen Alexandra Road, Bedford, England
email: andrew_at_apmsl.demon.co.uk