Comparing two decimal values in SQL Server

Lets say we declare and initialize two decimal variables in SQL Server like this:

DECLARE @num1 DECIMAL = 1.98
DECLARE @num2 DECIMAL = 2.2

then we use the following piece of code to compare the two values:

IF (@num1 != @num2)
   SELECT 0
ELSE IF (@num1 = @num2)
   SELECT 1

Contrary to what one might expect the above code returns a 1, implying the two values are equal! Click here for a live demo.

This is due to the fact that we have not included the precision and scale values in our declaration of @num1, @num2 variables. Hence, default values are being used.

According to the documentation:

Scale can be specified only if precision is specified. The default scale is 0; therefore, 0 <= s <= p. Maximum storage sizes vary, based on the precision.

So the scale of both variables defaults to 0 and thus both variables are being set to 2.

We can easily get around the problem by using declaration statements like:

DECLARE @num1 DECIMAL(10,2) = 1.98
DECLARE @num2 DECIMAL(10,2) = 2.2