DerbyDB truncates the values inserted in a numeric field instead of approximating them

[Jacopo Cappellato]

Hi all,

my name is Jacopo Cappellato, I'm one of the developers of the OFBiz 
project (www.ofbiz.org), that will soon start the incubation process.

OFBiz is using DerbyDb as the default db and it works pretty well even 
if we have found some minor issues.

One of these is the way numbers are approximated when inserted in 
numeric fields.

Namely, DerbyDB truncates the values inserted in a numeric field instead 
of approximating them 
(http://db.apache.org/derby/docs/10.0/manuals/reference/sqlj132.html).

Since the general approach in OFBiz is that of using db approximations 
(instead of doing them in the code), this is not a good thing because 
other databases (e.g. MaxDB/SapDB) perform approximations instead of 
truncations in the same situations.

So switching from DerbyDB to another one could lead to different 
calculations.

Is there a way to configure the way approximations are done? Is it 
something that should be fixed?

Thanks,

Jacopo