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From: --CELKO-- on 23 May 2010 22:01
>> I have a field [sic] named itemSize .. <<

Here is the root of your problems. You are still thinking in terms of
COBOL files and don't know the differences between columns and fields.

>> What would be the best way to drop the inch character and get a true sort? <<

Yes, of course! This is a numeric data elemebt, so you use a numeric
data type. You are doing display formatting in the DDL ande not in the
appllcations. Would also store dollar amounts as strings with $ and
commas? No, of course not.

This came up in a "Bad SQL" session at SQL Saturday when we ere
telling horror stories. The schema designer knew web pages and no
SQL. Every column was a VARCHAR(n) The amount of CASTing that had to
be done for any report was insane. But it made nice web pages .
From: J M De Moor on 24 May 2010 14:37
>
> This is a numeric data elemebt[sic], so you use a numeric
> data type.

Of course, Celko brings up an important point here that I should have
mentioned, too. A lot of programmers in this NG claim they don't have a
say in the table design, but neither my nor Gert-Jan's code will work
should your front end slip in a value like , e.g., 'na' instead of
'n/a'. Or if there is another unit of measure, or if someone enters
'in' instead of the double quote, etc.

You get the idea.

Joe De Moor

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