I'm changing a column in the database from "money" to "numeric" per some previous advice here.
Looking through the data types in postgres -- https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/datatype-numeric.html -- I can't see any differences between numeric and decimal in the descriptions.
What is the difference between decimal and numeric, and is there any reason I should use numeric instead of decimal for prices in my database?
According to the manual they are the same.
The types decimal and numeric are equivalent. Both types are part of the SQL standard.
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/datatype-numeric.html
The difference lies in the SQL standard which allows for different behaviour:
NUMERIC must be exactly as precise as it is defined — so if you define 4 decimal places, the DB must always store 4 decimal places.
DECIMAL must be at least as precise as it is defined. This means that the database can actually store more digits than specified (due to the behind-the-scenes storage having space for extra digits). This means the database might store 1.00005 instead of 1.0000, affecting future calculations.
