SQL Data Types

The SQL data type defines a kind of value that a column can contain.

In a database table, every column is required to have a name and a data type.

Data Type varies from database to database. For example, MySQL supports INT but Oracle supports NUMBER for integer values.

These are the general data types in SQL.

Data-type	Syntax	Explanation
Integer	INTEGER	integer number.
Smallint	SMALLINT	small integer number.
Numeric	NUMERIC(P,S)	where 'p' is precision value and 's' is scale value.
Real	REAL	single precision floating point number
Decimal	DECIMAL(P,S)	where 'p' is precision value and 's' is scale value.
Double precision	DOUBLE PRECISION	double precision floating point number
Float	FLOAT(P)	where 'p' is precision value
Character	CHAR(X)	where 'x' is the character's number to store
Character varying	VARCHAR2(X)	where 'x' is the character's number to store
Bit	BIT(X)	where 'x' is the number of bits to store
Bit varying	BIT VARYING(X)	'x' is the number of bits to store (length can vary up to x)
Date	DATE	it stores year, month and days values.
Time	TIME	it stores hour, minute and second values
Timestamp	TIMESTAMP	it stores year, month, day, hour, minute and second values
Time with	TIME WITH	exactly same as time but also store an offset from UTC
time zone	TIME ZONE	of the time specified
timestamp with	TIMESTAMP WITH	same as timestamp but also stores an offset from UTC of
time zone	TIME ZONE	the time specified.