Encountered arithmetic overflow error using decimal datatype in SQL server 2008

Defining a column as decimal(4,4) is the equivalent of saying

I will have 4 digits in total, of which 4 come after the decimal point

To represent 9.95, you’d need to store it as 9.9500 to satisfy the ‘4 decimal places’ condition. But this now exceeds the ‘max 4 digits’ condition and so can’t be converted.

You’d need at least decimal(5, 4) to store 9.95 as a decimal in this way.

If you write decimal(4,4), what the database hears is:

  • There are four digits total
  • All four of them are behind the decimal separator

So a decimal(4,4) can store the range 0.0000 to 0.9999 (and its negative equivalent). But 9.95 is outside that range, so it will return an error.

I had similar issue few years ago, here is my understanding.

Decimal(TotalDigitsIncludingDecimal,DecimalPlaces)

Eg: Value = 50.05 declare Decimal(4,2)
Eg: Value = 5000.0005 declare Decimal(8,4)

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