Question

Explain why it might be more appropriate to declare an attribute that contains only digits as a character data type instead of a numeric data type.

Answer 1

It may be more appropriate to declare an attribute that contains only digits as a character data type instead of a numeric data type because character data types allow for greater flexibility and can handle other non-numeric characters.

Step-by-step explanation:

In certain cases, it may be more appropriate to declare an attribute that contains only digits as a character data type instead of a numeric data type. This is because character data types allow for greater flexibility and can handle not only numerical values but also other non-numeric characters.

For example, if you're working with a student ID that consists of digits but also includes special characters like dashes or periods, storing it as a character data type would be more suitable. This way, you can accurately capture and manipulate the entire ID without losing any important characters.

Character data types also allow for better error handling and handling of leading zeros, which can be important in certain scenarios, such as when dealing with bank account numbers or zip codes.

Answer 2

• There can be string data type and numeric data type to declare the attribute and specify the type of value that can be contained by a column.
• For example VARCHAR, CHAR etc are examples of commonly used string data types that can hold alphanumeric characters and also special characters.
• INT, FLOAT, DECIMAL, etc are examples of numeric data types that can hold numerical values. For example you would not want to use numeric data type for name attribute of person entity.
• However it might be better to declare an attribute that contains only digits as a string data type as character data type can also hold digits.
• For example a social security number attribute can be declared as character data type instead of numeric data type. Although a social security number only consists of digits but it can be declared as a character data type because there is no need of performing any mathematical operations on a social security number. It is just a combination of digits and it might not need to be subtracted, added, multiplied etc.
• Another example can be of a phone number. It also is a combination of digits but again there is no need to perform mathematical functions over a phone number attribute. But as we know there are different area codes for different countries, so there might be a need of adding or removing an area code with a phone number. So it is appropriate to declare such an attribute as a character data type.