Re: How much slower are numerics?

CSN <cool_screen_name90001@yahoo.com> writes:

> Another thing I've always wondered about ;), as I use
> numerics far more than floats. From the docs:
>
> "However, arithmetic on numeric values is very slow
> compared to the integer types, or to the
> floating-point types"
>
> How much slower are numerics? And why (I guess it has
> to do with potentially different sizes)?

Integer and floating-point arithmetic are done in hardware.  NUMERIC
is done in software, and is variable size (as you note).  I would
guess that the difference in speed is at least an order of magnitude.

-Doug