# How to represent price? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [November 17, 2006, 12:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-represent-price/76298 "2006-11-17T12:35:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Thushan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Thushan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Thushan)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 12:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-represent-price/76298/1 "2006-11-17T12:35:44Z")
As recomended by AWDWR (pg 85), is everyone using integer to store decimal values? Or is there a better way to do this? Thanks in advance Thushan ---
**Author:** ![Thushan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Thushan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Thushan)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 3:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-represent-price/76298/2 "2006-11-17T15:06:10Z")
Hi ! 2006/11/17, Thushan [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > As recomended by AWDWR (pg 85), is everyone using integer to store > decimal values? > Or is there a better way to do this? I use integer columns with a composed\_of :class\_name =\> ‘Money’ ## Hope that helps ! François Beausoleil [http://blog.teksol.info/](http://blog.teksol.info/) [http://piston.rubyforge.org/](http://piston.rubyforge.org/) ---
**Author:** ![Thushan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Thushan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Thushan)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 4:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-represent-price/76298/3 "2006-11-17T16:18:25Z")
On Nov 17, 2006, at 4:34 AM, Thushan wrote: > As recomended by AWDWR (pg 85), is everyone using integer to store > decimal values? > Or is there a better way to do this? The new edition recommends using decimal columns once Rails 1.2 comes out. Cheers Dave ---
**Author:** ![Thushan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Thushan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Thushan)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 9:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-represent-price/76298/4 "2006-11-17T21:48:35Z")
Michael K. wrote: > Out of curiosity what does rails 1.2 have to do with the use of > decimal columns? Check out: [http://blogs.pragprog.com/cgi-bin/pragdave.cgi/Tech/Random/Rounding.rdoc](http://blogs.pragprog.com/cgi-bin/pragdave.cgi/Tech/Random/Rounding.rdoc) I believe that versions of Rails before 1.2, convert database decimal amounts to floats in Ruby. If you check out the link above, you can see that unfortunately that doesn’t provide the precision that’s desired for cash-related applications. A patch was submitted: [http://dev.rubyonrails.org/ticket/5454](http://dev.rubyonrails.org/ticket/5454) that fixes this and provides support for high-precision decimal columns to BigDecimal Ruby objects. The patch will be a part of the core in Rails 1.2. ---
**Author:** ![Thushan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Thushan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Thushan)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 8:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-represent-price/76298/5 "2006-11-17T20:03:13Z")
Out of curiosity what does rails 1.2 have to do with the use of decimal columns? I’ve been using decimal columns for my currency needs on my site for over a year without any issues (that I know of). I’ve done testing to ensure my math is correct and haven’t seen any problems. I’m afraid of what problems I’m missing by not understanding the issue at large. I’m using rails 1.1.6. -Michael [http://javathehutt.blogspot.com](http://javathehutt.blogspot.com)