{
  "id": "2005-january-february-learning-to-play-the-access-numbers-game",
  "slug": "2005-january-february-learning-to-play-the-access-numbers-game",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2005-january-february-learning-to-play-the-access-numbers-game.html",
  "year": 2005,
  "month": "January • February",
  "monthNum": 1,
  "headline": "Learning to play the Access numbers game",
  "kicker": "Tech tip...",
  "author_name": "MaryJo Sylwester",
  "author_title": "",
  "affiliation": "USA Today",
  "summary": "This technical tip explains how to choose and configure numeric field types in Microsoft Access to ensure data like decimals and percentages are stored accurately.",
  "keywords": [
    "Microsoft Access",
    "data types",
    "database design"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Technology",
    "Data & Databases"
  ],
  "technologies": [
    "Access"
  ],
  "full_text": "You've created a table in Microsoft Access, and you set the data type as number. But every time you type \"1.6,\" it puts \"2\" in the field. This happens because the field properties need to be configured correctly. When you create a field for numeric values, you need to set the Data Type (Text, numeric, date/time, etc.) and Field Properties (Field size and decimal places). If you need whole numbers, choose between Byte (1-255), Integer (-32,768 to 32,768), or Long Integer (up to 2 billion). For numbers with decimals, use Single (up to three decimal places) or Double (more than three). Unless you are a rocket scientist, you'll be fine with Single. Specifying the number of decimal places is important because reducing the display also rounds the stored value. If you have numbers like ZIP codes where you don't want to do calculations, set the Data Type to Text. Access also has pre-set types for Currency and Percentage. Setting as Percentage: If you have a field with percentages in decimal format (such as 0.50 for 50 percent), you can set the Data Type as Number and the Format to Percent.",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "pre-v2",
    "extracted_at": "",
    "verified": true
  },
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  "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2005-january-february-learning-to-play-the-access-numbers-game.html",
  "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2005-january-february-learning-to-play-the-access-numbers-game.json"
}