I have the following column specified in a database: decimal(5,2)
How does one interpret this?
According to the properties on the column as viewed in SQL Server Management studio I can see that it means: decimal(Numeric precision, Numeric scale).
What do precision and scale mean in real terms?
It would be easy to interpret this as a decimal with 5 digits and two decimals places…ie 12345.12
P.S. I’ve been able to determine the correct answer from a colleague but had great difficulty finding an answer online. As such, I’d like to have the question and answer documented here on stackoverflow for future reference.
Numeric precision refers to the maximum number of digits that are present in the number.
ie 1234567.89 has a precision of 9
Numeric scale refers to the maximum number of decimal places
ie 123456.789 has a scale of 3
Thus the maximum allowed value for decimal(5,2) is 999.99