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Storing Negative Numbers
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Storing Negative Numbers
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tymberwyld
tymberwyld
Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 6:14 AM
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Along with a lot of other horrible decisions, I am now not allowed to use Negative numbers in any database design. Instead, I need to add another column (ex. Operator) which tells whomever that the data in the amount column is either Positive or Negative. Huh? Is there something I missed during my last 10 years designing databases?
Post #599801
GilaMonster
GilaMonster
Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 6:18 AM
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Do they have a reason for this decision?
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008, MVP
SQL In The Wild
: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
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Post #599804
Ronald H
Ronald H
Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 6:18 AM
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Are you trying to say you're looking for another job? Or that the company you work for is just positive by design?
Ronald Hensbergen
Help us, help yourself... Post data so we can read and use it:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
2+2=5 for significant large values of 2
Post #599805
Grant Fritchey
Grant Fritchey
Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 6:59 AM
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Not unless I've missed it to. If the value of a number is -3, it's -3, not 3 with some negative sign kept elsewhere that may or may not change it. That's a bit of a freaky design. Although, I'd have to check with an accounting friend for the details, I think there is a method of accounting whereby you designate everything as a value and then describe the value as either a credit or debit, + or -, maybe that's what you're dealing with.
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Post #599837
tymberwyld
tymberwyld
Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 9:15 AM
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Basically what's going on here is that someone is looking at some wireframes of the UI and that's getting translated directly into a database design. If they want to give users an easy way to enter Postive / Negative amounts, by all means, give them a stupid designator / operator selector. However, that should not be how it's stored in the database. As far as accounting goes, I understand your point, but I would think that all Credits would be stored as Negative amounts, yes?
Post #599953
Lynn Pettis
Lynn Pettis
Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 9:28 AM
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tymberwyld (11/10/2008)
Basically what's going on here is that someone is looking at some wireframes of the UI and that's getting translated directly into a database design. If they want to give users an easy way to enter Postive / Negative amounts, by all means, give them a stupid designator / operator selector. However, that should not be how it's stored in the database. As far as accounting goes, I understand your point, but I would think that all Credits would be stored as Negative amounts, yes?
Not all credits are negative. It depends if they are expenses, liabilities, or assests.
Lynn Pettis
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Post #599962
tymberwyld
tymberwyld
Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 10:57 AM
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Lynn Pettis (11/10/2008)
Not all credits are negative. It depends if they are expenses, liabilities, or assests.
True, sorry, my Accounting knowledge is only so-so :)
Post #600048
Jeff Moden
Jeff Moden
Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 6:06 PM
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Heh... if you really want to throw a ball of wax at them before you decide to find a place with reasonable requirements, tell them the column should be named "IsNotNegative"... :D;)
--Jeff Moden
"
RBAR
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R
ow-
B
y-
A
gonizing-
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ow".
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
Stop thinking about what you want to do to a row... think, instead, of what you want to do to a column."
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Post #600323
Matt Miller (#4)
Matt Miller (#4)
Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 6:36 PM
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This would bring out the old Bastard DBA from Hell in me. Just encrypt all of the views and all outputs from the DB, calling it a new SOX measure, then mention that they must talk to SEcurity to get their own personal security code to decrypt the output.....
Or -
Comply with the request, and store every number in Hex form, again refusing to convert it back to decimal for output purposes.....
(it's been one of them days, so probably best not to heed any of this advice....:))
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?
Post #600327
krayknot
krayknot
Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 10:56 PM
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tymberwyld (11/10/2008)
Basically what's going on here is that someone is looking at some wireframes of the UI and that's getting translated directly into a database design. If they want to give users an easy way to enter Postive / Negative amounts, by all means, give them a stupid designator / operator selector. However, that should not be how it's stored in the database. As far as accounting goes, I understand your point, but I would think that all Credits would be stored as Negative amounts, yes?
whatever the value and the operator the user selects. you multiply that value by -1.
for example
user entered 100 and selects '-'
the output would be: 100 * -1 = -100
or 100 * 1 =100 or no change
am i correct?
kshitij kumar
kshitij@krayknot.com
www.krayknot.com
Post #600404
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