Question

I have a table which contains a field of type numeric(28,10). I would like to display the records with a monospaced font, and a matching number of decimal places so that they line up when right aligned.

Is there any way to figure out the maximum number of decimal places that can be found in a given result set so that I can format accordingly as I display each record?

Edit: sorry, I should have been clearer … if the result set contains numbers with only 3 decimal places, then all of the numbers should have only 3 decimal places (padded with zeroes).

Answer 1

The monospaced font is entirely a presentation issue…

I don’t see your need for right alignment when I test:

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Table_1](
  [num] [numeric](28, 10) NOT NULL
)

INSERT INTO [example].[dbo].[Table_1] VALUES (1.1234567890);
INSERT INTO [example].[dbo].[Table_1] VALUES (1.123456789);
INSERT INTO [example].[dbo].[Table_1] VALUES (1.1234567);

SELECT [num]
  FROM [example].[dbo].[Table_1]

…returns:

num
---------------
1.1234567890
1.1234567890
1.1234567000

So the question is–what are you trying to do that isn’t giving you the output you desire?