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SQL Data Types

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SQL data types are divided into five categories:

1. Character/String Data Types

2. Numeric Data Types
3. Date/Time Data Types
4. Binary Data Types
5. Miscellaneous Data Types

Char,Varchar,
Nchar,Narchar,
Text,Ntext

Char/String bit,smallint,int,
bigint,decimal,
real,numeric,
Numeric float

Datetime,
Date, Time,
SQL Data Date/Time Timestamp,
Types Year

Binary,
Binary Varbinary,
Varbinary(max),
image
Miscellaneous
Clob, Blob,
JSON, XML

SQL Data Types

1. Character/String Data Types

Character/Strings can be used to store strings like names, locations, etc. and even
large text files.

Data Type Description

Maximum 8000 character long fixed

CHAR
length string

Maximum 8000 character long vari-

VARCHAR
able length string

Maximum max character long variable

VARCHAR(max)
length string

Unicode Maximum 8000 character

NCHAR
long fixed length string

Unicode Maximum 8000 character

NVARCHAR
long variable length string

Unicode Maximum max character long

NVARCHAR(max)
variable length string

Maximum 2GB sized variable length

TEXT
string

2. Numeric Data Types

Numeric data types can be used to store exact or decimal numeric data, from very
small numbers in a bit or tinyint to very large numbers in a bigint .

Data Type Minimum Maximum

bit 0 1

tinyint 0 255

smallint -32,768 32,767

int -2,147,483,648 2,147,483,647

-9,223,372,036,854,775,8 9,223,372,036,854,775,80
bigint
08 7
 Data Type Minimum Maximum

decimal -10^38 - 1 -10^38 - 1

real -3.40E + 38 3.40E + 38

numeric -10^38 +1 10^38 -1

float -1.79E + 308 1.79E + 308

3. Date/Time Data Types

Date/Time data types are used to store data and time objects. Storing a date as a
date/type object instead of a string can make it very easy to work with data at a later
point.

Data Type Description

Date and Time stored in the YYYY-MM-

Datetime
DD HH:MI:SS format

Date stored in the YYYY-MM-DD

Date
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Time Time stored in the HH:MI:SS format

Number of seconds passed stored

Timestamp
since ‘1970-01-01 00:00:00’ UTC

Year stored in 2-digit (from 1970-2069)

Year
or 4-digit (from 1901 2155) format

4. Binary Data Types

Binary data types are used to store data in its binary form, instead of storing it as
strings, which can be a big factor in saving space.

Data Type Description

Maximum length of 8000 bytes fixed

BINARY
binary
 Data Type Description

Maximum length of 8000 bytes vari-

VARBINARY
able binary

Maximum length of max bytes fixed

VARBINARY(max)
binary

Maximum 2GB sized variable length

NTEXT
binary

5. Miscellaneous Data Types

These data types are for special types of data as described below:

Data Type Description

CLOB Upto 2GB large character objects

BLOB For storing binary large objects

JSON For storing JSON objects

XML For storing XML objects

RELATED TAGS

sql data datetime timestamp

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