John Davidson

Message:

I want to store many records in a MySQL database. All of them contains money values. But I don't know how many digits will be inserted for each one.

Which data type do I have to use for this purpose?

VARCHAR or INT (or other numeric data types)?

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My Answer:
For storing money values in MySQL, it is recommended to use the DECIMAL data type. DECIMAL is a fixed-point numeric data type that allows you to specify the precision (total number of digits) and scale (number of digits to the right of the decimal point) for your money values.

For example, you can define a DECIMAL column like this:

sql
CREATE TABLE money_table (
amount DECIMAL(10, 2)
);


In this example, the DECIMAL column "amount" can store up to 10 digits in total, with 2 digits to the right of the decimal point. This allows you to store a wide range of money values with varying precision.

Using DECIMAL is preferred over using VARCHAR or INT for storing money values because it ensures data integrity and accuracy when performing calculations or comparisons on the values.VARCHAR is a variable-length string data type and is not suitable for storing numeric values like money. INT is an integer data type that does not support decimal points, so it is not suitable for storing money values with fractional parts.