Should you choose the MONEY or DECIMAL(x,y) datatypes in SQL Server?

Question

I\'m curious as to whether or not there is a real difference between the money datatype and something like decimal(19,4) (which is what money uses

Answer 1

SQLMenace said money is inexact. But you don't multiply/divide money by money! How much is 3 dollars times 50 cents? 150 dollarcents? You multiply/divide money by scalars, which should be decimal.

DECLARE
@mon1 MONEY,
@mon4 MONEY,
@num1 DECIMAL(19,4),
@num2 DECIMAL(19,4),
@num3 DECIMAL(19,4),
@num4 DECIMAL(19,4)

SELECT
@mon1 = 100,
@num1 = 100, @num2 = 339, @num3 = 10000

SET @mon4 = @mon1/@num2*@num3
SET @num4 = @num1/@num2*@num3

SELECT @mon4 AS moneyresult,
@num4 AS numericresult

Results in the correct result:

moneyresult           numericresult
--------------------- ---------------------------------------
2949.8525             2949.8525

money is good as long as you don't need more than 4 decimal digits, and you make sure your scalars - which do not represent money - are decimals.