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Johnston" Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2026 15:45:04 -0700 X-Gm-Features: AZwV_Qis2gzuDDbaQl-WY4avPcjX4zev2LUqWRkPlKYoUL7r_ST8gkeHikAO4ps Message-ID: Subject: Re: Clarification on the (lack of) differences between the decimal, dec, and numeric types To: "scott.ratchford@smartlam.com" , "pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="00000000000071ac39064aa83da6" List-Id: List-Help: List-Subscribe: List-Post: List-Owner: List-Archive: Archived-At: Precedence: bulk --00000000000071ac39064aa83da6 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Thursday, February 12, 2026, PG Doc comments form wrote: > > > I suggest changing the wording of the page to read "decimal is an alias o= f > the type numeric. Both reference the same underlying type." > I agree with the premise but would likely use a bit different wording and also tweak the table at the top of the page. I=E2=80=99m disliking the ide= a of calling something a data type if it doesn=E2=80=99t appear in pg_type; synt= ax aliases should be called out for what they are. A nearby complaint regarding nchar, which is also an alias but isn=E2=80=99t mentioned, inform= s this. I do wonder what other =E2=80=9Cdata type=E2=80=9D aliases should be consid= ered. David J. --00000000000071ac39064aa83da6 Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Thursday, February 12, 2026, PG Doc comments form <noreply@postgresql.org> wrote:

I suggest changing the wording of the page to read "decimal is an alia= s of
the type numeric. Both reference the same underlying type."

I agree with the premise but would likely = use a bit different wording and also tweak the table at the top of the page= .=C2=A0 I=E2=80=99m disliking the idea of calling something a data type if = it doesn=E2=80=99t appear in pg_type; syntax aliases should be called out f= or what they are.=C2=A0 A nearby complaint regarding nchar, which is also a= n alias but isn=E2=80=99t mentioned, informs this.=C2=A0 I do wonder what o= ther =E2=80=9Cdata type=E2=80=9D aliases should be considered.
David J.

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