Best DataType for a PL/SQL ASCII Variable

Question

What is the best datatype to use for storing the value returned from a PL/SQL ascii() function call? Example...

declare
x number; /* number, pls_integer, binary_integer, int, etc...? */
begin
    x := ascii('a');
end;
/

This will be happening in a number of very low-level functions that will end up being called within loops, so speed and storage need to be considered. For PL/SQL number storage we have these datatypes...

BINARY_INTEGER
BINARY_INTEGER Subtypes... NATURAL, NATURALN, POSITIVE, POSITIVEN, SIGNTYPE

NUMBER
NUMBER Subtypes... DEC, DECIMAL, DOUBLE, PRECISION, FLOAT, INTEGER, INT, NUMERIC, REAL, and SMALLINT

PLS_INTEGER

Because of this statement I'm leaning towards using PLS_INTEGER:

You use the PLS_INTEGER datatype to store signed integers. Its magnitude range is -2**31 .. 2**31. PLS_INTEGER values require less storage than NUMBER values. Also, PLS_INTEGER operations use machine arithmetic, so they are faster than NUMBER and BINARY_INTEGER operations, which use library arithmetic. For efficiency, use PLS_INTEGER for all calculations that fall within its magnitude range.

Would you agree that this is the best datatype to use, or is there something I'm not considering? Thanks!

Answer 1

PLS_INTEGER (now the same as BINARY_INTEGER) will yield the fastest performance (and so will buying a new server :) )

Really to see the performance gain, you would need be looping like crazy.

This says it all: http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/misc/performance-of-numeric-data-types-in-plsql.php