double precision

Learning Focus

Use this lesson to choose PostgreSQL double precision when you need floating point and more precision than real.

double precision Overview

• Storage: 8 bytes
• Approximate floating point
• Best for: scientific computations, measurements, analytics

Example

CREATE TABLE geo_points (
  point_id bigint GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
  latitude double precision NOT NULL,
  longitude double precision NOT NULL
);

Best Practices

• Prefer double precision over real for most floating-point needs.
• Avoid floats for exact values (use numeric).

What's Next

• Next: serial and identity
• Section Overview