# DOUBLE PRECISION data type

The DOUBLE PRECISION data type provides 8-byte storage for numbers using IEEE floating-point notation.

## Syntax

    DOUBLE PRECISION

or, alternately

    DOUBLE

DOUBLE can be used synonymously with DOUBLE PRECISION.

## Limitations

DOUBLE value ranges:

- Largest negative DOUBLE value: -1.7976931348623157E+308
- Largest positive DOUBLE value: 1.7976931348623157E+308
- Smallest negative normalized DOUBLE value: -2.2250738585072014E-308
- Smallest positive normalized DOUBLE value: 2.2250738585072014E-308
- Smallest negative denormalized DOUBLE value: -4.9E-324
- Smallest positive denormalized DOUBLE value: 4.9E-324

These limits are the same as the `java.lang.Double` Java type limits.

An exception is thrown when any double value is calculated or entered that is outside of these value ranges. Arithmetic operations do not round their resulting values to zero. If the values are too small, you will receive an exception.

Derby normalizes -0.0 to positive 0.0.

Derby throws an exception if an operation calculates or tries to store a value of NaN, positive infinity, or negative infinity, as defined by the IEEE 754 Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic and as represented with named constants in the Java programming language (for example, `Double.NaN`).

Numeric floating-point constants are limited to a length of 30 characters.

    -- this example will fail because the constant is too long:
    values 01234567890123456789012345678901e0;

## Corresponding compile-time Java type

java.lang.Double

## JDBC metadata type (java.sql.Types)

DOUBLE

When mixed with other data types in expressions, the resulting data type follows the rules shown in Numeric type promotion in expressions.

See also Storing values of one numeric data type in columns of another numeric data type.

## Examples

    3421E+09
    425.43E9
    9E-10
    4356267544.32333E+30

Parent topic: Data types