In a DECIMAL(M, D) column MySQL gives the option for the range of D to be 0 to 30.
Is there a subtle reason that I'm missing for the option of 0? Isn't a decimal with nothing after the decimal point an integer?
When and why would I want to specify a DECIMAL that has no decimal places?
The number range of the DECIMAL type is much greater than for an INTEGER or BIGINT. The greatest number you are able to store in a DECIMAL(65, 0) is 65 nines. The largest number in a BIGINT is 18446744073709551615.
DECIMAL(x, 0) is often a little more expensive for small numbers. Consider using a defined INTEGER type if your numbers are in the range for one of those.
The storage requirement in bytes for a DECIMAL(x, 0) field depends on the x according to this formula:
Storage = x / 9 + Leftover
Leftover = round_up((x % 9) / 2) (i.e., about half of the leftover digits)
You can read more about storage requirements for numeric types in the MySQL manual and compare for yourself.
Besides allowing to store values bigger than BIGINT, you can use DECIMAL(x,0) if you want to:
allow values in the range -9, ... , +9: use DECIMAL(1,0) (uses 1 byte)
allow values in the range -99, ... , +99: use DECIMAL(2,0) (uses 1 byte)
allow values in the range -999, ... , +999: use DECIMAL(3,0) (uses 2 bytes)
allow values in the range -9999, ... , +9999: use DECIMAL(4,0) (uses 2 bytes)
...
allow values in the range -999999999, ... , +999999999: use DECIMAL(9,0) (uses 4 bytes)
... etc (up to DECIMAL(65,0) which uses 29 bytes)
In Mysql,
Decimal(3,2) means total 3 digits and 2 digits after decimal point like 3.42
Decimal(3,0) means in total 3 digits and no digit after decimal point like 345
Even if you write something beyond the given range in brackets of decimal Mysql will automatically update them to 000 or 999.
In a biging you can only store a digit which is no larger than 18 446 744 073 709 551 615. This is 20 digits, but in a DECIMAL you can specify even a 65 digits to store. Also with int you can't constrait directly the number of digits to a low number (e.g. to one). So it is more flexible, and if you need to expand it on an existing database, it is easier.
Related
For example, if n=9, then how many different values can be represented in 9 binary digits (bits)?
My thinking is that if I set each of those 9 bits to 1, I will make the highest number possible that those 9 digits are able to represent. Therefore, the highest value is 1 1111 1111 which equals 511 in decimal. I conclude that, therefore, 9 digits of binary can represent 511 different values.
Is my thought process correct? If not, could someone kindly explain what I'm missing? How can I generalize it to n bits?
29 = 512 values, because that's how many combinations of zeroes and ones you can have.
What those values represent however will depend on the system you are using. If it's an unsigned integer, you will have:
000000000 = 0 (min)
000000001 = 1
...
111111110 = 510
111111111 = 511 (max)
In two's complement, which is commonly used to represent integers in binary, you'll have:
000000000 = 0
000000001 = 1
...
011111110 = 254
011111111 = 255 (max)
100000000 = -256 (min) <- yay integer overflow
100000001 = -255
...
111111110 = -2
111111111 = -1
In general, with k bits you can represent 2k values. Their range will depend on the system you are using:
Unsigned: 0 to 2k-1
Signed: -2k-1 to 2k-1-1
What you're missing: Zero is a value
A better way to solve it is to start small.
Let's start with 1 bit. Which can either be 1 or 0. That's 2 values, or 10 in binary.
Now 2 bits, which can either be 00, 01, 10 or 11 That's 4 values, or 100 in binary... See the pattern?
Okay, since it already "leaked": You're missing zero, so the correct answer is 512 (511 is the greatest one, but it's 0 to 511, not 1 to 511).
By the way, an good followup exercise would be to generalize this:
How many different values can be represented in n binary digits (bits)?
Without wanting to give you the answer here is the logic.
You have 2 possible values in each digit. you have 9 of them.
like in base 10 where you have 10 different values by digit say you have 2 of them (which makes from 0 to 99) : 0 to 99 makes 100 numbers. if you do the calcul you have an exponential function
base^numberOfDigits:
10^2 = 100 ;
2^9 = 512
There's an easier way to think about this. Start with 1 bit. This can obviously represent 2 values (0 or 1). What happens when we add a bit? We can now represent twice as many values: the values we could represent before with a 0 appended and the values we could represent before with a 1 appended.
So the the number of values we can represent with n bits is just 2^n (2 to the power n)
The thing you are missing is which encoding scheme is being used. There are different ways to encode binary numbers. Look into signed number representations. For 9 bits, the ranges and the amount of numbers that can be represented will differ depending on the system used.
I am currently learning SQL.
When looking at the INT, I came to the understanding that an INT type is 4 bytes long, which translates to 8 bits each byte, leading to each INT being 32 bits.
However, for INT it is said that the max value for unsigned types is (2^32)-1 where the -1 is accounting for 0 value. I understand that the 32 comes from the fact that each int is 32 bits.
My question is where does the 2 come from in the calculation?
My intuition is telling me that each bit will have some sort of measure valued at 2.
int is actually a signed value in SQL. The range is from -2^31 through 2^31 - 1, which is -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647. There are exactly 2^32 possible values in tis range. Note that it includes 0.
An unsigned integer would range from 0 to 2^32-1, that is up to 4,294,967,295. The - 1s are because 0 is included in the range, so the counting starts at 0 rather than 1.
The range of possible values is easily seen at with fewer bits. For instance, 3 bits can represent the values from -4 to 3:
Bits Unisgned Signed
000 0 0
001 1 1
010 2 2
011 3 3
100 4 -4
101 5 -3
110 6 -2
111 7 -1
Computers use binary system for storing values. Let's try analogy between binary and decimal system:
Consider 10-based (decimal) system. If You have number with 32 decimal places, every place having value 0-9, You have 10^32 possible values (obviously enough; we use this system on daily basis).
Now consider 2-based system, which is the one used by computers (for practical reasons - two states are easiest to distinguish and wiring logic is simplest). Every place (bit) has value 0-1, so there are 2^32 possible values.
I've tried using DECIMAL with (2,2) but it won't let me use this.
I simply want to store a number, for example 7.50 or 10.50. I need to keep both numbers after the decimal though but when I refresh the database it resets the values to 0.99. Any suggestions?
The first parameter of the DECIMAL declaration is the total digits. You probably want to use DECIMAL (4, 2). This allows for up to two digits before the decimal and two after.
Documentation: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/precision-math-decimal-characteristics.html
The syntax is DECIMAL(M,D)
M - total length
D - digits right of the decimal point
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/fixed-point-types.html
The declaration syntax for a DECIMAL column is DECIMAL(M,D). The
ranges of values for the arguments in MySQL 5.6 are as follows:
M is the maximum number of digits (the precision). It has a range of 1
to 65. (Older versions of MySQL permitted a range of 1 to 254.)
D is the number of digits to the right of the decimal point (the
scale). It has a range of 0 to 30 and must be no larger than M.
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `table_name` (`id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,`cost` DECIMAL( 10, 2 ) NOT NULL);
This will make the cost column hold a total of 10 digits, 8 before and 2 after the decimal point.
CREATE TABLE `salary` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`salary` DECIMAL(10,2) DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=1 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
DECIMAL(10,2) indicates that salary will hold a total of 10 digits out of which 2 will be after the decimal.
i.e.
8 digits before decimal and 2 digits after decimal.
From mysql doc:
The declaration syntax for a DECIMAL column is DECIMAL(M,D). The ranges of values for the arguments are as follows:
M is the maximum number of digits (the precision). It has a range of
1 to 65.
D is the number of digits to the right of the decimal point (the scale). It has a range of 0 to 30 and must be no larger than M.
NB:- M is total no. of digits before decimal point + total no. of digits after decimal point.
In your case, 7.50 has a total no of 3 digits and 10.50 has a total no of 4 digits. But the declared maximum no. of digits for the column is 2 so it can store a maximum of two digits value. You cannot even store 1 because it's 1.00 i.e. total 3 digits. So the maximum allowed 2 digit value in the column is .99.
If you want to store xx.xx then you have to declare (4, 2) where 4 is M and 2 is D.
If you want to store any number at maximum allowed size of mysql then you can declare a column with (65, 30).
Maximum no. of digits before decimal point = M - D
Change your field from INT to FLOAT
I have a column with the data type decimal setup as so..
`cost` decimal(4,2) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0.00',
However when I input a price, say 100.00, next time I look at it it says 99.99.
Why is this? I thought 4,2 allowed 4 chars before the decimal & 2 after?
4 is the precision (total number of digits), 2 is the scale (decimal places).
In your case you want 6,2.
A DECIMAL(M,D) column permits at most M - D digits to the left of the decimal point.
M is the maximum number of digits (the precision).
decimal [ (p[ ,s] )] and numeric[ (p[ ,s] )]
Fixed precision and scale numbers. When maximum precision is used, valid values are from - 10^38 +1 through 10^38 - 1. The ISO synonyms for decimal are dec and dec(p, s). numeric is functionally equivalent to decimal.
BOTTOM LINE:
you should try and make it 6,2.
6 as in total 6 digits, 2 as in 2 digits after the point.
It is most important that it be accurate, but also it should take the least disk space possible.
You would need a DECIMAL(6,5) to store a number from 0 to 1 with 5 decimal places.
The declaration syntax for a DECIMAL column is DECIMAL(M,D). The ranges of values for the arguments in MySQL 5.1 are as follows:
M is the maximum number of digits (the precision). It has a range of 1 to 65.
D is the number of digits to the right of the decimal point (the scale). It has a range of 0 to 30 and must be no larger than M.
According to this, in MySQL 5.0.3
DECIMAL(5,5) or DECIMAL (6,6) should take 3 bytes.
DECIMAL(4,4) 2 bytes.
If you need to store values from 0 to 1 inclusive, you might be tempted to use DECIMAL(6,5). But that occupies 4 bytes as integer and float parts are stored separately and you need one byte for integer and three for 5 decimal digits. And if you have 4 bytes you might as well use FLOAT.
Before MySql 5 DECIMALs were stored as strings and the most efficient way was to store SMALLINT or MEDIUMINT (2 or 3 bytes) and manually divide it by 10000 or 1000000 respectively.