The data type of a column defines what value the column can hold: integer,

character, money, date and time, binary, and so on.

SQL Data Types

Each column in a database table is required to have a name and a data type.

An SQL developer must decide what type of data that will be stored inside each
column when creating a table. The data type is 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.

MySQL Data Types (Version 8.0)

In MySQL there are three main data types: string, numeric, and date and time.

String Data Types

Data type Description

CHAR(size) A FIXED length string (can contain letters,

numbers, and special characters). The size
parameter specifies the column length in characters
- can be from 0 to 255. Default is 1

VARCHAR(size) A VARIABLE length string (can contain letters,

numbers, and special characters). The size
parameter specifies the maximum column length in
characters - can be from 0 to 65535
BINARY(size) Equal to CHAR(), but stores binary byte strings. The
size parameter specifies the column length in bytes.
Default is 1

VARBINARY(size) Equal to VARCHAR(), but stores binary byte strings.

The size parameter specifies the maximum column
length in bytes.

TINYBLOB For BLOBs (Binary Large Objects). Max length: 255

bytes

TINYTEXT Holds a string with a maximum length of 255

characters

TEXT(size) Holds a string with a maximum length of 65,535

bytes

BLOB(size) For BLOBs (Binary Large Objects). Holds up to

65,535 bytes of data

MEDIUMTEXT Holds a string with a maximum length of

16,777,215 characters

MEDIUMBLOB For BLOBs (Binary Large Objects). Holds up to

16,777,215 bytes of data
 LONGTEXT Holds a string with a maximum length of
4,294,967,295 characters

LONGBLOB For BLOBs (Binary Large Objects). Holds up to

4,294,967,295 bytes of data

ENUM(val1, val2, val3, A string object that can have only one value,
...) chosen from a list of possible values. You can list up
to 65535 values in an ENUM list. If a value is
inserted that is not in the list, a blank value will be
inserted. The values are sorted in the order you
enter them

SET(val1, val2, val3, A string object that can have 0 or more values,
...) chosen from a list of possible values. You can list up
to 64 values in a SET list

Numeric Data Types

Data type Description

BIT(size) A bit-value type. The number of bits per value is

specified in size. The size parameter can hold a
value from 1 to 64. The default value for size is 1.

TINYINT(size) A very small integer. Signed range is from -128 to

127. Unsigned range is from 0 to 255. The size
 parameter specifies the maximum display width
(which is 255)

BOOL Zero is considered as false, nonzero values are

considered as true.

BOOLEAN Equal to BOOL

SMALLINT(size) A small integer. Signed range is from -32768 to

32767. Unsigned range is from 0 to 65535. The size
parameter specifies the maximum display width
(which is 255)

MEDIUMINT(size) A medium integer. Signed range is from -8388608

to 8388607. Unsigned range is from 0 to
16777215. The size parameter specifies the
maximum display width (which is 255)

INT(size) A medium integer. Signed range is from

-2147483648 to 2147483647. Unsigned range is
from 0 to 4294967295. The size parameter
specifies the maximum display width (which is 255)

INTEGER(size) Equal to INT(size)

BIGINT(size) A large integer. Signed range is from

-9223372036854775808 to
9223372036854775807. Unsigned range is from 0
 to 18446744073709551615. The size parameter
specifies the maximum display width (which is 255)

FLOAT(size, d) A floating point number. The total number of digits

is specified in size. The number of digits after the
decimal point is specified in the d parameter. This
syntax is deprecated in MySQL 8.0.17, and it will be
removed in future MySQL versions

FLOAT(p) A floating point number. MySQL uses the p value to

determine whether to use FLOAT or DOUBLE for the
resulting data type. If p is from 0 to 24, the data
type becomes FLOAT(). If p is from 25 to 53, the
data type becomes DOUBLE()

DOUBLE(size, d) A normal-size floating point number. The total

number of digits is specified in size. The number of
digits after the decimal point is specified in the d
parameter

DOUBLE
PRECISION(size, d)

DECIMAL(size, d) An exact fixed-point number. The total number of

digits is specified in size. The number of digits after
the decimal point is specified in the d parameter.
The maximum number for size is 65. The maximum
number for d is 30. The default value for size is 10.
The default value for d is 0.
 DEC(size, d) Equal to DECIMAL(size,d)

Note: All the numeric data types may have an extra option: UNSIGNED or
ZEROFILL. If you add the UNSIGNED option, MySQL disallows negative values
for the column. If you add the ZEROFILL option, MySQL automatically also adds
the UNSIGNED attribute to the column.

Date and Time Data Types

Data type Description

DATE A date. Format: YYYY-MM-DD. The supported range

is from '1000-01-01' to '9999-12-31'

DATETIME(fsp) A date and time combination. Format: YYYY-MM-DD

hh:mm:ss. The supported range is from
'1000-01-01 00:00:00' to '9999-12-31 23:59:59'.
Adding DEFAULT and ON UPDATE in the column
definition to get automatic initialization and
updating to the current date and time

TIMESTAMP(fsp) A timestamp. TIMESTAMP values are stored as the

number of seconds since the Unix epoch
('1970-01-01 00:00:00' UTC). Format:
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss. The supported range is
from '1970-01-01 00:00:01' UTC to '2038-01-09
03:14:07' UTC. Automatic initialization and
updating to the current date and time can be
specified using DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP and
 ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP in the column
definition

TIME(fsp) A time. Format: hh:mm:ss. The supported range is

from '-838:59:59' to '838:59:59'

YEAR A year in four-digit format. Values allowed in

four-digit format: 1901 to 2155, and 0000.

MySQL 8.0 does not support year in two-digit

format.

ADVERTISEMENT

SQL Server Data Types

String Data Types

Data type Description Max size Storage

char(n) Fixed width 8,000 Defined width

character string characters

varchar(n) Variable width 8,000 2 bytes +

character string characters number of
chars
varchar(max) Variable width 1,073,741,824 2 bytes +
character string characters number of
chars

text Variable width 2GB of text 4 bytes +

character string data number of
chars

nchar Fixed width 4,000 Defined width

Unicode string characters x2

nvarchar Variable width 4,000

Unicode string characters

nvarchar(max) Variable width 536,870,912

Unicode string characters

ntext Variable width 2GB of text

Unicode string data

binary(n) Fixed width 8,000 bytes

binary string

varbinary Variable width 8,000 bytes

binary string
 varbinary(max) Variable width 2GB
binary string

image Variable width 2GB

binary string

Numeric Data Types

Data type Description Storag

e

bit Integer that can be 0, 1, or NULL

tinyint Allows whole numbers from 0 to 255 1 byte

smallint Allows whole numbers between -32,768 and 2 bytes

32,767

int Allows whole numbers between -2,147,483,648 4 bytes

and 2,147,483,647

bigint Allows whole numbers between 8 bytes

-9,223,372,036,854,775,808 and
9,223,372,036,854,775,807
decimal(p,s) Fixed precision and scale numbers. 5-17
bytes

Allows numbers from -10^38 +1 to 10^38 –1.

The p parameter indicates the maximum total

number of digits that can be stored (both to the
left and to the right of the decimal point). p must
be a value from 1 to 38. Default is 18.

The s parameter indicates the maximum number

of digits stored to the right of the decimal point. s
must be a value from 0 to p. Default value is 0

numeric(p,s) Fixed precision and scale numbers. 5-17

bytes

Allows numbers from -10^38 +1 to 10^38 –1.

The p parameter indicates the maximum total

number of digits that can be stored (both to the
left and to the right of the decimal point). p must
be a value from 1 to 38. Default is 18.

The s parameter indicates the maximum number

of digits stored to the right of the decimal point. s
must be a value from 0 to p. Default value is 0
 smallmoney Monetary data from -214,748.3648 to 4 bytes
214,748.3647

money Monetary data from -922,337,203,685,477.5808 8 bytes

to 922,337,203,685,477.5807

float(n) Floating precision number data from -1.79E + 308 4 or 8

to 1.79E + 308. bytes

The n parameter indicates whether the field

should hold 4 or 8 bytes. float(24) holds a 4-byte
field and float(53) holds an 8-byte field. Default
value of n is 53.

real Floating precision number data from -3.40E + 38 4 bytes

to 3.40E + 38

Date and Time Data Types

Data type Description Storag

e

datetime From January 1, 1753 to December 31, 9999 with 8 bytes

an accuracy of 3.33 milliseconds
 datetime2 From January 1, 0001 to December 31, 9999 with 6-8
an accuracy of 100 nanoseconds bytes

smalldatetime From January 1, 1900 to June 6, 2079 with an 4 bytes

accuracy of 1 minute

date Store a date only. From January 1, 0001 to 3 bytes

December 31, 9999

time Store a time only to an accuracy of 100 3-5

nanoseconds bytes

datetimeoffset The same as datetime2 with the addition of a time 8-10

zone offset bytes

timestamp Stores a unique number that gets updated every

time a row gets created or modified. The
timestamp value is based upon an internal clock
and does not correspond to real time. Each table
may have only one timestamp variable

Other Data Types

Data type Description

sql_variant Stores up to 8,000 bytes of data of various data types,
except text, ntext, and timestamp

uniqueidentifie Stores a globally unique identifier (GUID)

r

xml Stores XML formatted data. Maximum 2GB

cursor Stores a reference to a cursor used for database operations

table Stores a result-set for later processing

MS Access Data Types

Data type Description Storag

e

Text Use for text or combinations of text and numbers.

255 characters maximum

Memo Memo is used for larger amounts of text. Stores

up to 65,536 characters. Note: You cannot sort a
memo field. However, they are searchable
Byte Allows whole numbers from 0 to 255 1 byte

Integer Allows whole numbers between -32,768 and 2 bytes

32,767

Long Allows whole numbers between -2,147,483,648 4 bytes

and 2,147,483,647

Single Single precision floating-point. Will handle most 4 bytes

decimals

Double Double precision floating-point. Will handle most 8 bytes

decimals

Currency Use for currency. Holds up to 15 digits of whole 8 bytes

dollars, plus 4 decimal places. Tip: You can choose
which country's currency to use

AutoNumber AutoNumber fields automatically give each record 4 bytes

its own number, usually starting at 1

Date/Time Use for dates and times 8 bytes

Yes/No A logical field can be displayed as Yes/No, 1 bit

True/False, or On/Off. In code, use the constants
 True and False (equivalent to -1 and 0). Note: Null
values are not allowed in Yes/No fields

Ole Object Can store pictures, audio, video, or other BLOBs up to

(Binary Large Objects) 1GB

Hyperlink Contain links to other files, including web pages

Lookup Wizard Let you type a list of options, which can then be 4 bytes
chosen from a drop-down list