SQL: Data Types

This SQL tutorial provides a list of general SQL datatypes. These data types may not be supported by all relational databases.

Data Type Syntax	Explanation (if applicable)
integer
smallint
numeric(p,s)	Where p is a precision value; s is a scale value. For example, numeric(6,2) is a number that has 4 digits before the decimal and 2 digits after the decimal.
decimal(p,s)	Where p is a precision value; s is a scale value.
real	Single-precision floating point number
double precision	Double-precision floating point number
float(p)	Where p is a precision value.
char(x)	Where x is the number of characters to store. This data type is space padded to fill the number of characters specified.
varchar(x)	Where x is the number of characters to store. This data type does NOT space pad.
bit(x)	Where x is the number of bits to store.
bit varying(x)	Where x is the number of bits to store. The length can vary up to x.
date	Stores year, month, and day values.
time	Stores the hour, minute, and second values.
timestamp	Stores year, month, day, hour, minute, and second values.
time with time zone	Exactly the same as time, but also stores an offset from UTC of the time specified.
timestamp with time zone	Exactly the same as timestamp, but also stores an offset from UTC of the time specified.
year-month interval	Contains a year value, a month value, or both.
day-time interval	Contains a day value, an hour value, a minute value, and/or a second value.