Precision of "float" type

[David]

Hi,

I was wondering about the true precision of the float variable type in MySQL and in PHP.

1. If I declare a MySQL field to be of type "Float(9,6)", will MySQL automatically preserve the precision of the data (i.e. 6 digits after the decimal point) or should I declare it as a "Double"?

2. When reading&writing the above field with PHP, is there a difference between float or double or shouldn't I worry about any loss of precision?

Thanks

David.