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SQL – Data types

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Data storage format of an object is defined by SQL data types. These objects can be a variable or columns or expressions and data can be numeric, character, string, binary, date and time etc.


Numeric Data Types in SQL:

  • BIGINT – Stores big integer numbers, values from -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807
  • INTEGER – Stores integer number, values from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647
  • SMALLINT – Stores small integer number, values from -32,768 to 32,767
  • TINYINT – Stores tiny integer number, values from 0 to 255
  • NUMERIC(P,S) – Stores values from -10^38 +1 to 10^38 -1. Where ‘p’ is precision value and ‘s’ is scale value.
  • REAL – Single precision floating point number, stores values from -3.40E + 38 to 3.40E + 38
  • DECIMAL(P,S) – Stores values from -10^38 +1 to 10^38 -1, where ‘p’ is precision value and ‘s’ is scale value.
  • FLOAT(P) – Stores values from -1.79E + 308 to 1.79E + 308, where ‘p’ is precision value.
  • DOUBLE PRECISION – Double precision floating point number.
  • BIT(X) – Where ‘x’ is the number of bits to store, stores value from 0 to 1
  • BIT VARYING(X) – X’ is the number of bits to store (length can vary up to x)2

Non-Unicode Character Data Types:

  • CHAR(X) – Where ‘x’ is the character’s number to store. It can store upto 8,000 characters
  • VARCHAR2(X) – Where ‘x’ is the character’s number to store. It can store upto 8,000 characters
  • VARCHAR(MAX) – It can store upto 231 characters
  • text – Can store upto 2,147,483,647 characters

Unicode Character Data Types:

  • nCHAR(X) – Where ‘x’ is the character’s number to store. It can store upto 4,000 characters
  • nVARCHAR2(X) – Where ‘x’ is the character’s number to store. It can store upto 4,000 characters
  • nVARCHAR(MAX) – Can store upto 231 characters
  • ntext – Can store upto 1,073,741,823 characters

Binary Data Types in SQL:

  • binary – Can store upto 8,000 bytes (Fixed-length binary data)
  • varbinary – Can store upto 8,000 bytes. (Variable length binary data)
  • varbinary(max) – Can store upto 231 bytes (Variable length Binary data)
  • image – Can store upto 2,147,483,647 bytes. ( Variable length Binary Data)

Date and Time Data Types in SQL:

  • DATE – Stores month, days and year values.
  • TIME – Stores hour, minute and second values.
  • TIMESTAMP – It stores year, month, day, hour, minute and second values.

Misc Datatypes in SQL:

  • cursor – This data type is a reference to a cursor object.
  • xml – This data type Stores XML data.
  • table – This data type stores result set for further processing.
  • sql_variant – This data type stores some supported values of SQL Server data types.
  • uniqueidentifier – This data type stores a globally unique identifier (GUID).

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