SQL Server datatype precision - Neo, what is real?

Question

SQL Sever 2000 documentation:

Is a floating point number data with the following valid values: –3.40E + 38 through -1.18E - 38, 0 and 1.18E - 38 thr

Answer 1

SQL Server uses either 4 bytes or 8 bytes to store non-decimal floating point numbers.

If you specify real or any value in the range float<1> to float<24>, SQL server uses float<24> internally. If you use float or anything in the range float<25> to float<53> (the limit), it uses float<53> which is otherwise known as double precision.

MSDN documentation for float in SQL Server 2005 is here: float and real (Transact-SQL)

If you have a specific precision need, look instead at using decimal, which provides configurable precision and scale: decimal and numeric (Transact-SQL)