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Database data types define the format for data storage, including integers, characters, strings, floating-point numbers, and arrays. Programming languages may require explicit data type declaration or can infer types based on assigned values, ensuring consistency across records for effective data manipulation. Common data types include integer, character, string, floating point, array, varchar, boolean, and date/time formats.

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9 views

3576

Database data types define the format for data storage, including integers, characters, strings, floating-point numbers, and arrays. Programming languages may require explicit data type declaration or can infer types based on assigned values, ensuring consistency across records for effective data manipulation. Common data types include integer, character, string, floating point, array, varchar, boolean, and date/time formats.

Uploaded by

Niyonshuti Yves
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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DATA TYPES USED IN DBMS

Database data types refer to the format of data storage that can hold a distinct type or range of
values. When computer programs store data in variables, each variable must be designated a distinct
data type. Some common data types are as follows: integers, characters, strings, floating-point
numbers and arrays. More specific data types are as follows: varchar (variable character) formats,
Boolean values, dates and timestamps.
There are programming languages that require the programmer to determine the data type of a
variable before attaching a value to it. While some programming languages can automatically attach a
data type to a variable based on the initial data assigned to the variable. For example, a variable is
assigned with the value “3.75”, then the data type that will be attached to the variable is floating
point.
Most of the programming languages enable each variable to store only a single data type. For
example, if the data type attached to the variable is integer, when you assign a string data to the
variable, the string data will be converted to an integer format.
Database applications use data types. Database fields require distinct type of data to be entered. For
example, school record for a student may use a string data type for student’s first and last name. The
student’s date of birth would be stored in a date format and the student’s GPA can be stored as
decimal. By ensuring that the data types are consistent across multiple records, database applications
can easily perform calculations, comparisons, searching and sorting of fields in different records.

Common Database Data Types


 Integer – is a whole number that can have a positive, negative or zero value. It cannot be a
fraction nor can have decimal places. It is commonly used in programming especially for
increasing values. Addition, subtraction and multiplication of two integers results to an
integer. But division of two integers may result to an integer or a decimal. The resulting
decimal can be rounded off or truncated to produce an integer.
 Character – refers to any number, letter, space or symbol that can be entered in a computer.
Each character occupies one byte of space.
 String – is used to represent text. It is composed of a set of characters that can have spaces
and numbers. Strings are enclosed in quotation marks to identify the data as string and not
a variable name nor a number.
 Floating Point Number – is a number that contains decimals. Numbers that contain fractions
are also considered as floating point numbers.
 Array – contains a group of elements which can be of the same data type like an integer or
string. It is used to organise data for easier sorting and searching of related set of values.
 Varchar – as the name implies is variable character as the memory storage has variable
length. Each character occupies one byte of space plus 2 bytes for length information.Note:
Use Character for data entries with fixed length, like phone number. Use Varchar for data
entries with variable length, like address.
 Boolean – is used for creating true or false statements. To compare values the following
operators are being used: AND, OR, XOR, and NOT.
Boolean Operator Result Condition
x AND y True If both x and y are True
x AND y False If either x or y is False
x OR y True If either x or y, or both x and y are True
x OR y False If both x and y are False
x XOR y True If only x or y is True
x XOR y False If x and y are both True or both False
NOT x True If x is False
NOT x False If x is True
 Date, Time and Timestamp – these data types are used to work with data containing dates
and times.

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