SQL with Manoj

Decimal vs Numeric: None… both are same!!!

This is a misconception among many developers that Decimal and Numeric are different data types. And lot of people do not agree to understand that they are same unless I redirect them to this MSDN BOL [link].

Few days back while designing a data model for one our support enhancement project this question was raised and following was the conversation:

Person A: Ok, this column is defined as Numeric, can’t we make it a Decimal?
Me: What difference will it make?
Person A: Decimal is more precise than Numeric (according to him).
Me: No, both are same.
Person B, C and some others: There is slight difference, Decimal holds more accurate precision values than Numeric.

To my surprise none of them were aware that both are same.

So, when I redirected them to MSDN decimal and numeric (Transact-SQL) and show them the line which says: “numeric is functionally equivalent to decimal.” they agreed.

So, not to confuse between Decimal & Numeric, they both are synonyms to each other.