Oracle Floats vs Number

Question

I\'m seeing conflicting references in Oracles documentation. Is there any difference between how decimals are stored in a FLOAT and a NUMBER types in the database?

A

Answer 1

Like the PLS_INTEGER mentioned previously, the BINARY_FLOAT and BINARY_DOUBLE types in Oracle 10g use machine arithmetic and require less storage space, both of which make them more efficient than the NUMBER type

• ONLY BINARY_FLOAT and BINARY_DOUBLE supports NAN values

-not precise calculations