At 06:56 AM 98/12/31 EST, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>>What?  No packed decimal.  Suppose the number is too big to fit
>>into
>>an I type field.  I find your rules to lack flexibility to fit
>>all
>>cases.
>
>>Nick D.
>
>
>And what about floating point numbers?
>There are legitimate needs for very large or very small numbers.
>
>Cecile Chi
>

I did specifically mention real numbers as acceptable in the rare
situations that require it. The major problem with real numbers is their
inability to be processed easily by common programming languages - such as
COBOL. I imagine ODBC clients would also present some challenges.

As for the bit about inflexibility with respect to packed digit and being
too big to fit in an integer, I don't understand the problem here. Is the
largest number possible in a packed-decimal that much greater than that
possible in an integer item? I don't have the answer at hand, but I would
be surprised if that were an issue in many cases at all.

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Gilles Schipper
GSA Inc.
HP3000 & HP9000 System Administration Specialists
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