Oracle 101: The (Very) Basics
Oracle Database SQL Reference 10g Release 1 (10.1): Datatype Comparison Rules – Numeric Values
“A larger value is considered greater than a smaller one.”
“All negative numbers are less than zero and all positive numbers.”
“-1 is less than 100; -100 is less than -1.”
On first reading these statements seem obvious. The more you read them, however, the more they take on a deeper meaning, a deeper structure and beauty that transcends this, sublimates that and begins subtly but inexorably to change the way you view the world. You start to question their simplicity – are they perhaps over-simplifications of a more complex reality? Well, perhaps not.
I guess they had to include these statements for completeness, since later they get into the more complicated cases of comparison rules for dates and strings, which are not (necessarily) so obvious. For example, I haven’t come across anyone who thinks 12 April 1961 is greater than 20 July 1969, but I’m sure there are some.