[AccessD] Number vs text data type

...but postal codes are not numeric per se a la Canada, etc ...granted the
US five digit zips are but who has just a US db anymore?

William Hindman
<http://www.freestateproject.org> - Do you want liberty in your lifetime?


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Susan Harkins" <ssharkins at bellsouth.net>
To: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving"
<accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Monday, October 13, 2003 11:32 AM
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Number vs text data type


> What about Zip Codes, etc... what possible purpose would you have for
> treating such an entry as a number?
>
> I'm afraid this isn't old school -- it's still very alive and with us.
>
> Susan H.
>
>
> > That sounds like one of my co-workers who comes from the
> > old school early-days C and COBOL programming. He makes
> > everything text unless an actual calculation must be
> > performed, even when that doesn't necessarily make sense
> > in context. I believe that if its a number it should be
> > treated as a number unless there is a very compelling
> > reason not to, for all of the reasons given so far and
> > probably others I haven't thought of. To me, logic tells
> > you that if the data is numeric you should use a number
> > data type, using text just muddies things up. As far as a
> > number field needing "additional resources", especially
> > for calculations, that makes no sense at all to me. Some
> > number types may take additional storage space as compared
> > to holding the same digit characters in a text type, and
> > that can become an issue for DBAs when they are working
> > under short drive space conditions. Other than, I can't
> > think of a resource reason.
> >
> > Ron
> >
> > On Mon, 13 Oct 2003 10:42:15 -0400
> >   CYNTHIA SPELL <CSPELL at jhuccp.org> wrote:
> > >I will, that's a good idea.  What I've heard so far is
> > >that logic tells you that if you don't need to calculate,
> > >you should use text.  And that a number data type
> > >requires additional resources in order for the field to
> > >have the ability to do the calculating.
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