MySQL data types
MySQL uses many different data types broken into
three categories −
- Numeric
- Date and Time
- String Types.
Numeric Data Types
The following list shows the common
numeric data types and their descriptions −
· INT −
A normal-sized integer that can be signed or unsigned. If signed, the allowable
range is from -2147483648 to 2147483647. If unsigned, the allowable range is
from 0 to 4294967295. You can specify a width of up to 11 digits.
· TINYINT −
A very small integer that can be signed or unsigned. If signed, the allowable
range is from -128 to 127. If unsigned, the allowable range is from 0 to 255.
You can specify a width of up to 4 digits.
· SMALLINT −
A small integer that can be signed or unsigned. If signed, the allowable range
is from -32768 to 32767. If unsigned, the allowable range is from 0 to 65535.
You can specify a width of up to 5 digits.
· MEDIUMINT −
A medium-sized integer that can be signed or unsigned. If signed, the allowable
range is from -8388608 to 8388607. If unsigned, the allowable range is from 0
to 16777215. You can specify a width of up to 9 digits.
· BIGINT −
A large integer that can be signed or unsigned. If signed, the allowable range
is from -9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807. If unsigned, the allowable
range is from 0 to 18446744073709551615. You can specify a width of up to 20
digits.
· FLOAT(M,D) −
A floating-point number that cannot be unsigned. You can define the display
length (M) and the number of decimals (D). This is not required and will
default to 10,2, where 2 is the number of decimals and 10 is the total number
of digits (including decimals). Decimal precision can go to 24 places for a
FLOAT.
· DOUBLE(M,D) −
A double precision floating-point number that cannot be unsigned. You can
define the display length (M) and the number of decimals (D). This is not
required and will default to 16,4, where 4 is the number of decimals. Decimal
precision can go to 53 places for a DOUBLE. REAL is a synonym for DOUBLE.
· DECIMAL(M,D) −
An unpacked floating-point number that cannot be unsigned. In the unpacked
decimals, each decimal corresponds to one byte. Defining the display length (M)
and the number of decimals (D) is required. NUMERIC is a synonym for DECIMAL.
Date and Time Types
The MySQL date and time datatypes are as follows −
· DATE −
A date in YYYY-MM-DD format, between 1000-01-01 and 9999-12-31. For example,
December 30th, 1973 would be stored as 1973-12-30.
· DATETIME −
A date and time combination in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format, between 1000-01-01
00:00:00 and 9999-12-31 23:59:59. For example, 3:30 in the afternoon on
December 30th, 1973 would be stored as 1973-12-30 15:30:00.
· TIMESTAMP −
A timestamp between midnight, January 1st, 1970 and sometime in
2037. This looks like the previous DATETIME format, only without the hyphens
between numbers; 3:30 in the afternoon on December 30th, 1973 would
be stored as 19731230153000 ( YYYYMMDDHHMMSS ).
· TIME −
Stores the time in a HH:MM:SS format.
· YEAR(M) −
Stores a year in a 2-digit or a 4-digit format. If the length is specified as 2
(for example YEAR(2)), YEAR can be between 1970 to 2069 (70 to 69). If the
length is specified as 4, then YEAR can be 1901 to 2155. The default length is
4.
String Types
Although the numeric and date types are fun, most
data you'll store will be in a string format. This list describes the common
string datatypes in MySQL.
· CHAR(M) −
A fixed-length string between 1 and 255 characters in length (for example
CHAR(5)), right-padded with spaces to the specified length when stored.
Defining a length is not required, but the default is 1.
· VARCHAR(M) −
A variable-length string between 1 and 255 characters in length. For example,
VARCHAR(25). You must define a length when creating a VARCHAR field.
· BLOB or TEXT −
A field with a maximum length of 65535 characters. BLOBs are "Binary Large
Objects" and are used to store large amounts of binary data, such as
images or other types of files. Fields defined as TEXT also hold large amounts
of data. The difference between the two is that the sorts and comparisons on
the stored data are case sensitive on BLOBs and are not
case sensitive in TEXT fields. You do not specify a length with BLOB
or TEXT.
· TINYBLOB or TINYTEXT − A BLOB or TEXT column with a maximum length
of 255 characters. You do not specify a length with TINYBLOB or TINYTEXT.
· MEDIUMBLOB or MEDIUMTEXT − A BLOB or TEXT column with a maximum length
of 16777215 characters. You do not specify a length with MEDIUMBLOB or
MEDIUMTEXT.
· LONGBLOB or LONGTEXT − A BLOB or TEXT column with a maximum length
of 4294967295 characters. You do not specify a length with LONGBLOB or
LONGTEXT.
· ENUM −
An enumeration, which is a fancy term for list. When defining an ENUM, you are
creating a list of items from which the value must be selected (or it can be
NULL). For example, if you wanted your field to contain "A" or
"B" or "C", you would define your ENUM as ENUM ('A', 'B',
'C') and only those values (or NULL) could ever populate that field.