Building an Access database normally starts with working on the tables first and getting the correct types of data set in your application early on saving you a lot of time and headaches later when calculating and referring to numeric values elsewhere.
Currency and Number types are different to each other and the flexibility, scope and application use will help you make the right choice.
Here's a quick checklist to get your started:
Is the value going to be a monetary process?How many decimal places are required for the field?How large a range of values will be required?Where do you intend to use this data type in other objects?Simple questions to answer and get you started but the next element is choosing the right data types in Microsoft Access and where applicable the size of field.
The following numeric data types reveal their field sizes and scope:
A Currency data type has no field size option and is fixed to a 'Double' size up to 4 decimal placesA Number with a field size set to Integer has a different range with no decimal placesA Number with a field size set to Single has a different range up to 6 decimal placesA Number with a field size set to Decimal has a different range up to 14 decimal places.There are other technical factors not mentioned in this post but data types in Access are key to saving memory and improving performance as well as providing a sensible solution to the process.
Final thought! Would a telephone number to be captured as a Number or Text data type in your Access database?
Another Tip for you! There are other data type field sizes available for Number which include Byte & Double and have a different range of values and in one case no decimal places (for Byte). This all helps in keeping memory optimised for your Access database.
I invite you to keep up to date with my articles and eBooks which covers a lot of details and can be found at http://accessdatabasetutorial.com/.
From Ben Beitler - "Your Access Database Expert"
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