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JeffK627
Yak Posting Veteran
50 Posts |
 Posted - 2010-04-07 : 15:10:40
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| Hi all, I have been given this business rule to enforce in the database: "Additonal Tax Amount must be a dollar amount. (Percentages are not valid.)". The data does not contain dollar signs or percent signs. How the heck am I supposed to code this in SQL?? |
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DBA in the making
Aged Yak Warrior
638 Posts |
Posted - 2010-04-07 : 16:47:06
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| What is it you're actually doing? Are you adding a new column to a table to store the Additonal Tax Amount? Are you writing a query to calculate the Additonal Tax Amount?In any case, keep in mind that formatting data (By adding a $ sign or % sign) is something that's usually done in the application layer, not the database layer.There are 10 types of people in the world, those that understand binary, and those that don't. |
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visakh16
Very Important crosS Applying yaK Herder
52326 Posts |
Posted - 2010-04-08 : 01:08:03
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| are you told to do this at back end? or it may be that you can impose this at your front end------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------SQL Server MVPhttp://visakhm.blogspot.com/ |
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JeffK627
Yak Posting Veteran
50 Posts |
Posted - 2010-04-08 : 09:48:46
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| Nope. The data arrives in a flat file and in loaded into the table. They want me to determine whether the Additonal Tax Amount column is a dollar amount or a percentage for each record and write a query so that the percentages fall out. It's a column of numbers, how the $#@! am I supposed to tell whether they're dollars or percentages?Of course, the business clients don't want to hear this because they're not technical. They just want what they want. |
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DBA in the making
Aged Yak Warrior
638 Posts |
Posted - 2010-04-08 : 10:07:12
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quote:
Originally posted by JeffK627It's a column of numbers, how the $#@! am I supposed to tell whether they're dollars or percentages?
If each individual value in that column can be either a dollar amount or a percentage, and there's no indication as to the meaning of each value, (eg, $ or %, or some other flagging column), then there's really no way to be sure. quote:
Of course, the business clients don't want to hear this because they're not technical. They just want what they want.
Then ask them, "27, is that a dollar amount, or a percentage?" When they can't answer the question, then tell them, that's why they can't have what they want. Is there anything else in the source data that was used to create the flat file, which could be added to the flat file to indicate the meaning of that column for each record?There are 10 types of people in the world, those that understand binary, and those that don't. |
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JeffK627
Yak Posting Veteran
50 Posts |
Posted - 2010-04-08 : 10:51:07
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| Nope, they're just going to have to accept the news they don't like. I'll let my Manager deal with it. ;-) |
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DBA in the making
Aged Yak Warrior
638 Posts |
Posted - 2010-04-08 : 11:03:00
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quote:
Originally posted by JeffK627I'll let my Manager deal with it. ;-)
That's what they're good for.  There are 10 types of people in the world, those that understand binary, and those that don't. |
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Percentages?