SQL General Data Types

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A data type defines what kind of value a column can contain.

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SQL General Data Types

Each column in a database table is required to have a name and a data type.
SQL developers have to decide what types of data will be stored inside each and every table column when creating a SQL table. The data type is a label and a guideline for SQL to understand what type of data is expected inside of each column, and it also identifies how SQL will interact with the stored data.
The following table lists the general data types in SQL:

Data type	Description
CHARACTER(n)	Character string. Fixed-length n
VARCHAR(n) or CHARACTER VARYING(n)	Character string. Variable length. Maximum length n
BINARY(n)	Binary string. Fixed-length n
BOOLEAN	Stores TRUE or FALSE values
VARBINARY(n) or BINARY VARYING(n)	Binary string. Variable length. Maximum length n
INTEGER(p)	Integer numerical (no decimal). Precision p
SMALLINT	Integer numerical (no decimal). Precision 5
INTEGER	Integer numerical (no decimal). Precision 10
BIGINT	Integer numerical (no decimal). Precision 19
DECIMAL(p,s)	Exact numerical, precision p, scale s. Example: decimal(5,2) is a number that has 3 digits before the decimal and 2 digits after the decimal
NUMERIC(p,s)	Exact numerical, precision p, scale s. (Same as DECIMAL)
FLOAT(p)	Approximate numerical, mantissa precision p. A floating number in base 10 exponential notation. The size argument for this type consists of a single number specifying the minimum precision
REAL	Approximate numerical, mantissa precision 7
FLOAT	Approximate numerical, mantissa precision 16
DOUBLE PRECISION	Approximate numerical, mantissa precision 16
DATE	Stores year, month, and day values
TIME	Stores hour, minute, and second values
TIMESTAMP	Stores year, month, day, hour, minute, and second values
INTERVAL	Composed of a number of integer fields, representing a period of time, depending on the type of interval
ARRAY	A set-length and ordered collection of elements
MULTISET	A variable-length and unordered collection of elements
XML	Stores XML data

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SQL Data Type Quick Reference

However, different databases offer different choices for the data type definition.
The following table shows some of the common names of data types between the various database platforms:

Data type	Access	SQLServer	Oracle	MySQL	PostgreSQL
boolean	Yes/No	Bit	Byte	N/A	Boolean
integer	Number (integer)	Int	Number	Int Integer	Int Integer
float	Number (single)	Float Real	Number	Float	Numeric
currency	Currency	Money	N/A	N/A	Money
string (fixed)	N/A	Char	Char	Char	Char
string (variable)	Text (<256 br="">Memo (65k+)	Varchar	Varchar Varchar2	Varchar	Varchar
binary object	OLE Object Memo	Binary (fixed up to 8K) Varbinary (<8k br="">Image (<2gb td="">	Long Raw	Blob Text	Binary Varbinary

Note: Data types might have different names in different database. And even if the name is the same, the size and other details may be different! Always check the documentation!