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When you define a NUMBER
variable, you can specify its precision (p) and scale (s) so that it is sufficiently, but not unnecessarily, large. Precision is the number of significant digits. Scale can be positive or negative. Positive scale identifies the number of digits to the right of the decimal point; negative scale identifies the number of digits to the left of the decimal point that can be rounded up or down.
The NUMBER
data type is supported by Oracle Database standard libraries and operates the same way as it does in SQL. It is used for dimensions and surrogates when a text or INTEGER
data type is not appropriate. It is typically assigned to variables that are not used for calculations (like forecasts and aggregations), and it is used for variables that must match the rounding behavior of the Database or require a high degree of precision. When deciding whether to assign the NUMBER
data type to a variable, keep the following facts in mind to maximize performance:
Analytic workspace calculations on NUMBER
variables is slower than other numeric data types because NUMBER
values are calculated in software (for accuracy) rather than in hardware (for speed).
When data is fetched from an analytic workspace to a relational column that has the NUMBER
data type, performance is best when the data has the NUMBER
data type in the analytic workspace because a conversion step is not required.