Re: Using numeric(p) vs integer

["Shulzhenko Vasyl" <vasilis@softline.kiev.ua>]

jvnet@excite.com wrote:
> 
> I'm an Informix newbie.  Ant help would be appreciated.  I'm running 7.22 on
> NT 4.0.  I have a field in a table which holds a value up to 10 digits.  This
> is defined as "numeric(10)".  Is there any advantage to utilizing this data
> type versus using a data type of "integer" instead?  Also Informix

Well, integer holds 9+ digits decimal(10) (or numeric(10)) holds 10 
digits floating point.  (BTW if you need a 10 digit integer you can use 
decimal(10,0)).  Decimal(10) uses 6 bytes of storage compared to 4 for 
integer.  Calculations are slightly, though noticeably, faster for 
integer but formatting to string is slightly faster for decimal(10).

> documentation lists storage space for decimal data types with both a
> precision and a scale. That is the documentation  does not distinguish
> between floating point and fixed point for storage allocation. How would this
> differ e.g. numeric (10), nemeric (10,3) ? Thanks JV

Storage required of decimal(10) and decimal(10,3) or decimal(0) is the 
same though decimal types declared with an explicit scale are slightly 
more efficient to calculate with, in my experience, than decimals 
declared floating.

Art S. Kagel