[libreoffice-users] Re: Numerical terms used in Base
Am 16.08.2012 00:28, Jay Lozier wrote: varchar(60) is a text string up to 60 characters long. I believe the actual memory usage is based the number of characters in the string char(15) is a text string up to 15 characters long but enough memory is always used for 15 characters. The length of varchar and char can be set to other lengths. Then there is VARCHAR_IGNORECASE which is very useful It enforces case sensitivity on field level. integer is an integer only and can be positive or negative. I did not look up the range for Base (-minint to +maxint). Base uses the specification of the respective database. For the embedded HSQL that is: http://www.hsqldb.org/doc/1.8/guide/ch09.html#datatypes-section TINYINT is not negative between 0 and 255 (1 byte, 2^8) numeric and decimal are floating point numbers of varying precision and size. You can specify the number of decimal places as well as the size of the number (decimal(10,2) has 10 total places with two decimal places) .Some db's use decimal for currency, I am not sure what the advantage of numeric versus the other floating numbers such as float and double. The floating point numbers give you the same advantages and disadvantages as in spreadsheets which use the Double type for everything (64 bit, up to 15 free floating decimal digits). You have a flexible free floating translation between the stored bits and decimal figures. On the other hand you have rounding errors which make spreadsheets inadequate for accounting unless you have the skills to apply rounding without losing significant data. I mostly use MariaDB which does not have the numeric type explicitly available. Again you have both positive and negative values. I believe numeric is the full possible range while decimal is restricted by its initial definition. -- For unsubscribe instructions e-mail to: users+h...@global.libreoffice.org Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
[libreoffice-users] Re: Numerical terms used in Base
Am 15.08.2012 22:31, Thomas Taylor wrote:
It's been way too many years since I did commercial programming on
databases and I've forgotten some of the terms (formats) for numerical
data. I'm trying to create a simple database of local
facilities/doctors/stores with Base using the wizards. The formats that
are giving me trouble are:
Text[VARCHAR]- a variable number of type CHAR?
Text(fix)[CHAR] - does that mean a fixed number of CHAR?
Right.
Integer[INTEGER] \
Numeric[NUMERIC] How do these differ?
Decimal{DECIMAL] /
There are tiny integers, small integers, integers and big integer
numbers. Decimal(8,3) has 8 digits, 3 of them behind the point.
I don't know about Numeric. Never used that.
I looked in LibreOffice help but couldn't find the definitions. Some
help would be appreciated.
Base is not a database program. It is a mere frontend. You may decide to
wrap a HSQLDB backend into the frontend file which is a very unstable
construction and should be avoided for production databases.
The embeddable HSQLDB 1.8 is documented here:
http://www.hsqldb.org/doc/1.8/guide/ch09.html
For instance, which format is used for a telephone number?
(1.800.123.4567)?
That is text unless you want to practice some arithmetic witchcraft on
phone numbers. A pattern control on a form can enforce the right
pattern of points and digits.
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Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Numerical terms used in Base
On Wed, 15 Aug 2012 23:53:33 +0200
Andreas Säger ville...@t-online.de wrote:
Am 15.08.2012 22:31, Thomas Taylor wrote:
It's been way too many years since I did commercial programming on
databases and I've forgotten some of the terms (formats) for
numerical data. I'm trying to create a simple database of local
facilities/doctors/stores with Base using the wizards. The formats
that are giving me trouble are:
Text[VARCHAR]- a variable number of type CHAR?
Text(fix)[CHAR] - does that mean a fixed number of CHAR?
Right.
Integer[INTEGER] \
Numeric[NUMERIC] How do these differ?
Decimal{DECIMAL] /
There are tiny integers, small integers, integers and big integer
numbers. Decimal(8,3) has 8 digits, 3 of them behind the point.
I don't know about Numeric. Never used that.
I looked in LibreOffice help but couldn't find the definitions.
Some help would be appreciated.
Base is not a database program. It is a mere frontend. You may decide
to wrap a HSQLDB backend into the frontend file which is a very
unstable construction and should be avoided for production databases.
The embeddable HSQLDB 1.8 is documented here:
http://www.hsqldb.org/doc/1.8/guide/ch09.html
For instance, which format is used for a telephone number?
(1.800.123.4567)?
That is text unless you want to practice some arithmetic witchcraft
on phone numbers. A pattern control on a form can enforce the right
pattern of points and digits.
Thanks to both Jay and Andreas. Beginning to make sense.
Tom
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