Oracle vs .NET int

One of the problems of using .NET with Oracle is the type conversion of integers through the ODAC component.  Basically, the problem comes about because the ODAC component has no idea which .NET type to use when returning a value in a NUMBER field.... so it panics and just tends to return everything as a double (remember that the NUMBER field can hold decimal values!).

Oracle have also provided the INTEGER data type, which is really just a short-cut to get a NUMBER(32) field.  The best solution I can find to this is to define any columns that are being mapped to a .NET int as NUMBER(9, 0).   This will always ensure that the field will hold data that is compatible with being held in a .NET int.