Bill Pursell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on 2006.04.14 11:05:34: > On my first job, my supervisor described a problem they were > having with their database files. The issue arose from the > fact that integer values were sometimes stored rationally (as > 32-bit quantities), and sometimes stored as character strings. > The proposed solution was to always store them as character > strings. Although that strikes me as a bizarre solution, the > worst part was his description of the problem. He said something > along the lines of, "sometimes our numbers are stored in this > weird format", by which he was referring to the concept of > binary representation of numbers. He didn't understand the > basic concept of counting in base 2. How can a person working > professionally with a computer not understand something so > fundamental? >
A bit off-topic, but I tend to have the similar feeling 5 years ago. At that time I insist using 32-bit quantities to save integer numbers inside database. And the attempt to store the numbers as character string sounds absurd to me... But now, I found that the proposed solution of "store all of them as character strings" is really a sensible one. The reason is still: transparancy, platform-independent, something that the "The Art of Unix Programming" has encouraged. -- Sincerely Pan, Shizhu. ext: 2221
