Re: Best data type to use for sales tax percent

Mike Christensen wrote:
> (Sorry for the super-easy question)
>
> I want to store sales tax (as a percent) in the DB, such as 9.5%.
> What's the best data type for this? I'm guessing numeric(2,3) should
> be fine, yes? I'm not too familiar with the numeric type (I was using
> "real" before), but as I understand the data will be stored using the
> necessary number of bits on the disk? Thanks!
>
> Mike
>
>
Peruse: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.4/interactive/datatype-numeric.html

Pay special attention to nuggets like:

The data types real and double precision are inexact...

and

If you require exact storage and calculations (such as for monetary
amounts), use the numeric type instead....

Cheers,
Steve