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Pros and Cons of NUMBER versus NUMBER(X)

tx103108Aug 6 2009 — edited Jan 5 2010
Is there any cons to just defining a table column as NUMBER rather than NUMBER(30), other than not capturing any input data that exceeds a NUMBER(30) scale and precision?

I have a NUMBER column that continues to grow - from a source system that I have no control over - which forces me to have to increase the column scale/precision more often than I like. I was thinking about just setting it to NUMBER and then let some post-processing handle any 'out-of-bounds' issues.

I don't lose any space since Oracle does not store leading zeroes. Don't know if performance is effected (NUMBER versus NUMBER(30)).

Your suggestions.
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Locked on Feb 2 2010
Added on Aug 6 2009
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