title: Is "NUMBER" and "NUMBER(*,0)" the same in Oracle?
body: <p>In Oracle <a href="http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B28359_01/server.111/b28318/datatype.htm#i22289" rel="noreferrer">documentation</a> it is mentioned that </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>NUMBER (precision, scale) </p>
    
    <p>If a precision is not specified, the column stores values as given. If
    no scale is specified, the scale is zero.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>But <code>NUMBER</code> (without precision and scale) is also accepting floating point numbers (34.30) but according to documentation if scale is not specified it should be zero scale by default so it should allow only integers, am I wrong?. </p>
  
  <p>And in <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/593218/1705895">another questions</a> it is mentioned that </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>default precision is 38, default scale is zero</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>So <code>NUMBER</code> and <code>NUMBER(*,0)</code> should be equal but they are not.</p>
  
  <p>Where am I wrong?</p>