> When interacting with the database you either use an ORM with your strongly-typed business objects If you have strongly-type business objects then why not h

> When interacting with the database you either use an ORM with your strongly-typed business objects If you have strongly-type business objects then why not have a strongly typed storage? If you code can control the constraints that a correct data type ensures, then why have "strongly type business objects" to begin with? Why not store everything in your code as strings as well? I see this misconception all the time. The database (and its data) lives way longer than most applications. And it's also a wrong to assume that there is always only one application accessing the database. Bulk loads are a typical case of secondary applications. Not choosing the proper data type in a relational database is a really bad decision and we see question on stackoverflow and similar sites on a weekly (if not daily) basis asking how to fix invalid data in those "un-typed" columns.