From: Date: September 8 2006 12:40am
Subject: Re: Decimal versus Float Point Type
List-Archive: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql/201718
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> How do you expect to split a dollar 3 ways?

Sorry, I should have added more smiles, it was supposed to be a joke about
the dollars... ;)

But still, I could win a lot of money by distributing people's money to
their three kids and getting 1 cent out of every operation. :D


> It is not the math you do that determins whether you use float or
> decimal, it is what you are modeling that is important.
> Dollars are decimal, and dollar calculations must be rounded to the
> nearest cent, or mill.

What I tried to say (and probably failed miserably) was something close to
what you said about "what is your model" but giving a pratical way of
finding out if the data type will fit your model or not.

In number theory, a set of operations is what define the model of a number
sequence, so at the end, we said exactly the same thing, but in a
different way.

Glad you completed my observation! ;)

cheers,
--renato