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Oracle® Database SQL Quick Reference
10g Release 2 (10.2)

Part Number B14195-02
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6 Datatypes

This chapter presents datatypes that are recognized by Oracle and available for use within SQL.

This chapter includes the following sections:

Overview of Datatypes

A datatype is a classification of a particular type of information or data. Each value manipulated by Oracle has a datatype. The datatype of a value associates a fixed set of properties with the value. These properties cause Oracle to treat values of one datatype differently from values of another.

The datatypes recognized by Oracle are:

ANSI-supported datatypes

{ CHARACTER [VARYING] (size)
| { CHAR | NCHAR } VARYING (size)
| VARCHAR (size)
| NATIONAL { CHARACTER | CHAR }
     [VARYING] (size)
| { NUMERIC | DECIMAL | DEC }
     [ (precision [, scale ]) ]
| { INTEGER | INT | SMALLINT }
| FLOAT [ (size) ]
| DOUBLE PRECISION
| REAL
}

Oracle built-in datatypes

{ character_datatypes
| number_datatypes
| long_and_raw_datatypes
| datetime_datatypes
| large_object_datatypes
| rowid_datatypes
}

Oracle-supplied datatypes

{ any_types
| XML_types
| spatial_types
| media_types
| expression_filter_type
}

User-defined datatypes

User-defined datatypes use Oracle built-in datatypes and other user-defined datatypes to model the structure and behavior of data in applications

Oracle Built-In Datatypes

This section describes the kinds of Oracle built-in datatypes.

character_datatypes

{ CHAR [ (size [ BYTE | CHAR ]) ]
| VARCHAR2 (size [ BYTE | CHAR ])
| NCHAR [ (size) ]
| NVARCHAR2 (size)
}

datetime_datatypes

{ DATE
| TIMESTAMP [ (fractional_seconds_precision) ]
     [ WITH [ LOCAL ] TIME ZONE ])
| INTERVAL YEAR [ (year_precision) ] TO MONTH
| INTERVAL DAY [ (day_precision) ] TO SECOND
     [ (fractional_seconds_precision) ]
}

large_object_datatypes

{ BLOB | CLOB | NCLOB | BFILE }

long_and_raw_datatypes

{ LONG | LONG RAW | RAW (size) }

number_datatypes

{ NUMBER [ (precision [, scale ]) ]
| BINARY_FLOAT
| BINARY_DOUBLE
}

rowid_datatypes

{ ROWID | UROWID [ (size) ] }

The codes listed for the datatypes are used internally by Oracle Database. The datatype code of a column or object attribute is returned by the DUMP function.

Table 6-1 Built-in Datatype Summary

Code Datatype Description

1

VARCHAR2(size [BYTE | CHAR])

Variable-length character string having maximum length size bytes or characters. Maximum size is 4000 bytes or characters, and minimum is 1 byte or 1 character. You must specify size for VARCHAR2.

BYTE indicates that the column will have byte length semantics; CHAR indicates that the column will have character semantics.

1

NVARCHAR2(size)

Variable-length Unicode character string having maximum length size characters. The number of bytes can be up to two times size for AL16UTF16 encoding and three times size for UTF8 encoding. Maximum size is determined by the national character set definition, with an upper limit of 4000 bytes. You must specify size for NVARCHAR2.

2

NUMBER[(precision [, scale]])

Number having precision p and scale s. The precision p can range from 1 to 38. The scale s can range from -84 to 127.

8

LONG

Character data of variable length up to 2 gigabytes, or 231 -1 bytes. Provided for backward compatibility.

12

DATE

Valid date range from January 1, 4712 BC to December 31, 9999 AD. The default format is determined explicitly by the NLS_DATE_FORMAT parameter or implicitly by the NLS_TERRITORY parameter. The size is fixed at 7 bytes. This datatype contains the datetime fields YEAR, MONTH, DAY, HOUR, MINUTE, and SECOND. It does not have fractional seconds or a time zone.

21

BINARY_FLOAT

32-bit floating point number. This datatype requires 5 bytes, including the length byte.

22

BINARY_DOUBLE

64-bit floating point number. This datatype requires 9 bytes, including the length byte.

180

TIMESTAMP [(fractional_seconds)]

Year, month, and day values of date, as well as hour, minute, and second values of time, where fractional_seconds_precision is the number of digits in the fractional part of the SECOND datetime field. Accepted values of fractional_seconds_precision are 0 to 9. The default is 6. The default format is determined explicitly by the NLS_DATE_FORMAT parameter or implicitly by the NLS_TERRITORY parameter. The sizes varies from 7 to 11 bytes, depending on the precision. This datatype contains the datetime fields YEAR, MONTH, DAY, HOUR, MINUTE, and SECOND. It contains fractional seconds but does not have a time zone.

181

TIMESTAMP [(fractional_seconds)] WITH TIME ZONE

All values of TIMESTAMP as well as time zone displacement value, where fractional_seconds_precision is the number of digits in the fractional part of the SECOND datetime field. Accepted values are 0 to 9. The default is 6. The default format is determined explicitly by the NLS_DATE_FORMAT parameter or implicitly by the NLS_TERRITORY parameter. The size is fixed at 13 bytes. This datatype contains the datetime fields YEAR, MONTH, DAY, HOUR, MINUTE, SECOND, TIMEZONE_HOUR, and TIMEZONE_MINUTE. It has fractional seconds and an explicit time zone.

231

TIMESTAMP [(fractional_seconds)] WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE

All values of TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE, with the following exceptions:

  • Data is normalized to the database time zone when it is stored in the database.

  • When the data is retrieved, users see the data in the session time zone.

The default format is determined explicitly by the NLS_DATE_FORMAT parameter or implicitly by the NLS_TERRITORY parameter. The sizes varies from 7 to 11 bytes, depending on the precision.

182

INTERVAL YEAR [(year_precision)] TO MONTH

Stores a period of time in years and months, where year_precision is the number of digits in the YEAR datetime field. Accepted values are 0 to 9. The default is 2. The size is fixed at 5 bytes.

183

INTERVAL DAY [(day_precision)] TO SECOND [(fractional_seconds)]

Stores a period of time in days, hours, minutes, and seconds, where

  • day_precision is the maximum number of digits in the DAY datetime field. Accepted values are 0 to 9. The default is 2.

  • fractional_seconds_precision is the number of digits in the fractional part of the SECOND field. Accepted values are 0 to 9. The default is 6.

The size is fixed at 11 bytes.

23

RAW(size)

Raw binary data of length size bytes. Maximum size is 2000 bytes. You must specify size for a RAW value.

24

LONG RAW

Raw binary data of variable length up to 2 gigabytes.

69

ROWID

Base 64 string representing the unique address of a row in its table. This datatype is primarily for values returned by the ROWID pseudocolumn.

208

UROWID [(size)]

Base 64 string representing the logical address of a row of an index-organized table. The optional size is the size of a column of type UROWID. The maximum size and default is 4000 bytes.

96

CHAR [(size [BYTE | CHAR])]

Fixed-length character data of length size bytes. Maximum size is 2000 bytes or characters. Default and minimum size is 1 byte.

BYTE and CHAR have the same semantics as for VARCHAR2.

96

NCHAR[(size)]

Fixed-length character data of length size characters. The number of bytes can be up to two times size for AL16UTF16 encoding and three times size for UTF8 encoding. Maximum size is determined by the national character set definition, with an upper limit of 2000 bytes. Default and minimum size is 1 character.

112

CLOB

A character large object containing single-byte or multibyte characters. Both fixed-width and variable-width character sets are supported, both using the database character set. Maximum size is (4 gigabytes - 1) * (database block size).

112

NCLOB

A character large object containing Unicode characters. Both fixed-width and variable-width character sets are supported, both using the database national character set. Maximum size is (4 gigabytes - 1) * (database block size). Stores national character set data.

113

BLOB

A binary large object. Maximum size is (4 gigabytes - 1) * (database block size).

114

BFILE

Contains a locator to a large binary file stored outside the database. Enables byte stream I/O access to external LOBs residing on the database server. Maximum size is 4 gigabytes.


Oracle-Supplied Datatypes

This section describes the kinds of Oracle-supplied datatypes.

spatial_datatypes

{ SDO_Geometry | SDO_Topo_Geometry |SDO_GeoRaster }


Converting to Oracle Datatypes

SQL statements that create tables and clusters can also use ANSI datatypes and datatypes from the IBM products SQL/DS and DB2. Oracle recognizes the ANSI or IBM datatype name that differs from the Oracle datatype name, records it as the name of the datatype of the column, and then stores the column data in an Oracle datatype based on the conversions shown in the following table.

Table 6-2 ANSI Datatypes Converted to Oracle Datatypes

ANSI SQL Datatype Oracle Datatype

CHARACTER(n)

CHAR(n)

CHAR(n)

CHARACTER VARYING(n)

CHAR VARYING(n)

VARCHAR(n)

NATIONAL CHARACTER(n)

NATIONAL CHAR(n)

NCHAR(n)

NCHAR(n)

NATIONAL CHARACTER VARYING(n)

NATIONAL CHAR VARYING(n)

NCHAR VARYING(n)

NVARCHAR2(n)

NUMERIC(p,s)

DECIMAL(p,s) (a)

NUMBER(p,s)

INTEGER

INT

SMALLINT

NUMBER(38)

FLOAT (b)

DOUBLE PRECISION (c)

REAL (d)

NUMBER


Notes:

    1. The NUMERIC and DECIMAL datatypes can specify only fixed-point numbers. For those datatypes, s defaults to 0.

    2. The FLOAT datatype is a floating-point number with a binary precision b. The default precision for this datatypes is 126 binary, or 38 decimal.

    3. The DOUBLE PRECISION datatype is a floating-point number with binary precision 126.

    4. The REAL datatype is a floating-point number with a binary precision of 63, or 18 decimal.

Table 6-3 SQL/DS and DB2 Datatypes Converted to Oracle Datatypes

SQL/DS or DB2 Datatype Oracle Datatype

CHARACTER(n)

CHAR(n)

VARCHAR(n)

VARCHAR(n)

LONG VARCHAR(n)

LONG

DECIMAL(p,s) (a)

NUMBER(p,s)

INTEGER

SMALLINT

NUMBER(38)

FLOAT (b)

NUMBER


Notes:

    1. The DECIMAL datatype can specify only fixed-point numbers. For this datatype, s defaults to 0..

    2. The FLOAT datatype is a floating-point number with a binary precision b. The default precision for this datatype is 126 binary or 38 decimal.

Do not define columns with the following SQL/DS and DB2 datatypes, because they have no corresponding Oracle datatype:

  • GRAPHIC

  • LONG VARGRAPHIC

  • VARGRAPHIC

  • TIME

Note that data of type TIME can also be expressed as Oracle datetime data.

Do not define columns with the following SQL/DS and DB2 datatypes, because they have no corresponding Oracle datatype: