SQL Data types

SQL offers six categories of data types to store data into tables.

1. Exact Numeric Data types

Data Type	Minimum	Maximum
bigint	-9,223,372,036,854,775,808	9,223,372,036,854,775,807
int	-2,147,483,648	2,147,483,647
smallint	-32,768	32,767
tinyint	0	255
bit	0	1
decimal	-10^38 +1	10^38 -1
numeric	-10^38 +1	10^38 -1
money	-922,337,203,685,477.5808	+922,337,203,685,477.5807
smallmoney	-214,748.3648	+214,748.3647

2. Approximate Numeric Data types

Data Type	Minimum	Maximum
float	-1.79E + 308	1.79E + 308
real	-3.40E + 38	3.40E + 38

3. Date and Time Data types

Data Type	From	To
datetime	Jan 1, 1753	Dec 31, 9999
smalldatetime	Jan 1, 1900	Jun 6, 2079
date	Stores a date like June 9, 2014
time	Stores a time of day like 1:30 P.M.

4. Character Data types

Data type	Description
char	Maximum length of 8,000 characters.( Fixed length non-Unicode characters)
varchar	Maximum of 8,000 characters.(Variable-length non-Unicode data).
varchar(max)	Maximum length of 231characters, Variable-length non-Unicode data (SQL Server 2005 only).
text	Variable-length non-Unicode data with a maximum length of 2,147,483,647 characters.

5. Unicode Character Data types

Data type	Description
nchar	Maximum length of 4,000 characters.( Fixed length Unicode)
nvarchar	Maximum length of 4,000 characters.(Variable length Unicode)
nvarchar(max)	Maximum length of 231characters (SQL Server 2005 only).( Variable length Unicode)
ntext	Maximum length of 1,073,741,823 characters. ( Variable length Unicode )

6. Binary Data types

Data type	Description
binary	Maximum length of 8,000 bytes(Fixed-length binary data )
varbinary	Maximum length of 8,000 bytes.(Variable length binary data)
varbinary(max)	Maximum length of 231 bytes (SQL Server 2005 only). ( Variable length Binary data)
image	Maximum length of 2,147,483,647 bytes. ( Variable length Binary Data)

Prevoius                                                 Next                                                 Home