Numeric Values
PostgreSQL provides a variety of numeric data types. Of the six numeric types, four are exact (SMALLINT, INTEGER, BIGINT, NUMERIC(p,s)) and two are approximate (REAL, DOUBLE PRECISION).
Three of the four exact numeric types (SMALLINT, INTEGER, and BIGINT) can store only integer values. The fourth (NUMERIC(p,s)) can accurately store any value that fits within the specified number (p) of digits.
The approximate numeric types, on the other hand, cannot store all values exactly. Instead, an approximate data type stores an approximation of a real number. The DOUBLE PRECISION type, for example, can store a total of 15 significant digits, but when you perform calculations using a DOUBLE PRECISION value, you can run into rounding errors. ...
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