Table of Contents
MySQL supports a number of data types in several categories: numeric types, date and time types, and string (character) types. This chapter first gives an overview of these data types, and then provides a more detailed description of the properties of the types in each category, and a summary of the data type storage requirements. The initial overview is intentionally brief. The more detailed descriptions later in the chapter should be consulted for additional information about particular data types, such as the permissible formats in which you can specify values.
MySQL also supports extensions for handing spatial data. Section 11.17, “Spatial Extensions”, provides information about these data types.
Data type descriptions use these conventions:
Mindicates the maximum display width for integer types. For floating-point and fixed-point types,Mis the total number of digits that can be stored. For string types,Mis the maximum length. The maximum permissible value ofMdepends on the data type.Dapplies to floating-point and fixed-point types and indicates the number of digits following the decimal point. The maximum possible value is 30, but should be no greater thanM–2.Square brackets (“
[” and “]”) indicate optional parts of type definitions.