AVG in Sql - Float number problem

Question

SELECT     AVG(variable) AS Expr1, SUM(variable) AS Expr2
FROM       ......

result for AVG is 2, but it is not true, it must be 2.95. What is the problem, any idea?

What is the type of variable? I guess that it is an integer. Right? — luc, Jul 09 '09 at 07:53

score 66 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 09 '09 at 07:50

66

Try

Select
    AVG(Cast(variable as Float)),
    SUM(variable)
From
    Table

answered Jul 09 '09 at 07:50

I would suggest using decimal instead of float. See this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1056323/difference-between-numeric-float-and-decimal-in-sql-server – Pouya BCD May 24 '18 at 18:53
2

@PouyaBCD Without knowing the precise use-case you can't just suggest to use decimals instead of floats. There exist perfectly valid use-cases for floats/doubles where using decimals would not work well (for example when you need huge ranges, for example numbers from 1e-18 to 1e+18). – jlh Dec 25 '18 at 15:22

1 Answers1