Handling currencies in a database

How should money currency be handled in the database to be consistent? Should I choose the specific currency to use across my database or is it better to mix different values of different currencies?

Let's say I have Product table, this product has a price, but what currency should the price be in? Should it always be the same or should I also have Currency column with currency code or CurrencyID pointing to specific currency? Should I set currency per product or globally per database?

What is your experience with that?

There is no answer to that - it depends. If you are a smaller outfit that with locality (like a dozen shops in the USA) then all you really care about is the price in USD. If you are an international retailer with websites in many countries with local pricing, you need to keep likely even multiple prices per product in different currencies.


Let's say I have Product table, this product has a price, but what currency
should the price be in?

It should not be there. it assumes not only one currency (which wold be the base currency the system runs in) but also no rebate system at all. Pricing, except for really simplistic systems, is a separate table.

Suggested reading: Data Model REssouce Book, Volume 1 - whole chapter on storing prices.

If yo ustore it like this, it is either base currency (stored somewhere central) or yes, you add a currency id field to reference the currency. I suggest using the ISO currency code for that, and adding negative numbers if needed when no official code is assigned.

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#209076, answer score: 2