Why is the Number Class well suited to database applications?
If you build database applications, the Base/1 Number Class provides additional benefits whether you use a standard relational database management system (RDBMS), an object-oriented database, ISAM, or flat files to store your data. Besides its general compactness and speed, the Number Class addresses the following issues of importance to designers of information storage and retrieval systems: modern databases can store numbers that are longer than C++ can manipulate For example, Oracle can support a 38-digit numeric field, but there is no C++ data type that can exactly represent or perform arithmetic against such numbers. The Base/1 Number Class can handle numbers of far greater length and precision than those supported by any major DBMS. C++ numeric data types don’t support the concept of a null number, distinct from zero In database applications it can be useful to have a way of leaving a numeric field blank, meaning that data is not available, but the value is not necessarily zero.
