Declares literal strings of decimal numbers in an expression.
Syntax
[ + | - ] { n. | .n | n.n | n }
Syntax Elements
- +, -
- An optional sign.
- n
- Any valid integer.
Components of Decimal Literals
Decimal literals consist of the following components, reading from left-to-right:
- Optional sign
- Sequence of digits (including none)
- Decimal point
- Optional sequence of digits.
Spaces and new line characters are not allowed in a literal except after the optional sign.
Decimal Literal Data Types
Decimal literals include the following types:
- DECIMAL
- NUMERIC
Scale and Precision
The total number of digits in a decimal literal determine the precision and the number of digits to the right of the decimal point determine the scale. Leading and trailing zeros are included in the counts. The precision cannot exceed 38.
A numeric literal that is outside the range of the INTEGER type is assigned to DECIMAL(n, 0), where n is the number of digits in the literal, excluding leading zeros.
Examples: Decimal Literals
The following numbers are examples of decimal literals.
3.14159 253. -88.234 .29 2147483650
Related Information
For information on DECIMAL data types, see DECIMAL/NUMERIC Data Types.