Database Data Types

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Jonathan Wood - 26 Aug 2007 15:29 GMT

The further I delve into .NET and ADO.NET, the more things I seem to find
missing that we had 10 or 15 years ago. I really don't understand why.

So, using VS to create an SQL database I see:

1. There is no Boolean data type. Further, if I use tinyint and set it's
default value to 0, I see that it defaults to NULL, which causes an error if
I don't set it before I try to save a new record.

2. There is a money type, but it appears that is just an alias for decimal
or something. Once data is entered, it is automatically formatted something
like "39.9500".

Can anyone tell me how they are dealing with these limitations?

Thanks.

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Jonathan Wood
SoftCircuits Programming
http://www.softcircuits.com

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Miha Markic - 26 Aug 2007 15:57 GMT

Hi Jonathan,

> The further I delve into .NET and ADO.NET, the more things I seem to find
> missing that we had 10 or 15 years ago. I really don't understand why.
>
> So, using VS to create an SQL database I see:

What exactly are you doing?

> 1. There is no Boolean data type. Further, if I use tinyint and set it's
> default value to 0, I see that it defaults to NULL, which causes an error
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> or something. Once data is entered, it is automatically formatted
> something like "39.9500".

Data formatting is in the UI domain, not database domain. There are several
ways of formatting, depending on the UI controls you are using.

Signature

Miha Markic [MVP C#, INETA Country Leader for Slovenia]
RightHand .NET consulting & development www.rthand.com
Blog: http://cs.rthand.com/blogs/blog_with_righthand/

> Can anyone tell me how they are dealing with these limitations?
>
> Thanks.

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Jonathan Wood - 26 Aug 2007 19:52 GMT

Miha,

>> So, using VS to create an SQL database I see:
>
> What exactly are you doing?

Creating a table. That's the only place I'm aware of where data types are
specified.

> Data formatting is in the UI domain, not database domain. There are
> several ways of formatting, depending on the UI controls you are using.

The table designer provides a default value property, yet it seems to be
ignored. I don't see that as being in the UI domain.

Signature

Jonathan Wood
SoftCircuits Programming
http://www.softcircuits.com

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Miha Markic - 27 Aug 2007 09:49 GMT

> Miha,
>
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> Creating a table. That's the only place I'm aware of where data types are
> specified.

But how are you creating a table? Using server explorer? Then there are
types bit (boolean) and numeric(n,m).
Or are you reffering to DataTable?

>> Data formatting is in the UI domain, not database domain. There are
>> several ways of formatting, depending on the UI controls you are using.
>
> The table designer provides a default value property, yet it seems to be
> ignored. I don't see that as being in the UI domain.

Value formating is alyways in UI domain. Why should data tier deal with
formatting?
Anyway, try with numeric(n,m) datataype.

Signature

Miha Markic [MVP C#, INETA Country Leader for Slovenia]
RightHand .NET consulting & development www.rthand.com
Blog: http://cs.rthand.com/blogs/blog_with_righthand/

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Jonathan Wood - 27 Aug 2007 16:22 GMT

Miha,

>> Creating a table. That's the only place I'm aware of where data types are
>> specified.
>
> But how are you creating a table? Using server explorer? Then there are
> types bit (boolean) and numeric(n,m).
> Or are you reffering to DataTable?

As I indicated, in Visual Studio 2005. Whatever you want to call that table
designer.

>>> Data formatting is in the UI domain, not database domain. There are
>>> several ways of formatting, depending on the UI controls you are using.
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> Value formating is alyways in UI domain. Why should data tier deal with
> formatting?

Again, I do not consider a default value to be related to formatting or the
UI domain.

> Anyway, try with numeric(n,m) datataype.

I'll look into it.

Signature

Jonathan Wood
SoftCircuits Programming
http://www.softcircuits.com

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