List of standard data types

Chapter 3 Building Physical Diagrams

List of standard data types

You can open the list of Standard Data Types by clicking the question mark button to the left of the list of Data Types on the General Tab of a domain property sheet.

This is the same list that is available in the PowerDesigner Conceptual Data Model, and any data type selected in this list will be automatically mapped to the appropriate physical data type in your DBMS.

Numeric data types

The following numeric data types are available:

Standard data type	DBMS-specific physical data type	Content	Length
Integer	int / INTEGER	32-bit integer	—
Short Integer	smallint / SMALLINT	16-bit integer	—
Long Integer	int / INTEGER	32-bit integer	—
Byte	tinyint / SMALLINT	256 values	—
Number	numeric / NUMBER	Numbers with a fixed decimal point	Fixed
Decimal	decimal / NUMBER	Numbers with a fixed decimal point	Fixed
Float	float / FLOAT	32-bit floating point numbers	Fixed
Short Float	real / FLOAT	Less than 32-bit point decimal number	—
Long Float	double precision / BINARY DOUBLE	64-bit floating point numbers	—
Money	money / NUMBER	Numbers with a fixed decimal point	Fixed
Serial	numeric / NUMBER	Automatically incremented numbers	Fixed
Boolean	bit / SMALLINT	Two opposing values (true/false; yes/no; 1/0)	—

Character data types

The following character data types are available:

Standard data type	DBMS-specific physical data type	Content	Length
Characters	char / CHAR	Character strings	Fixed
Variable Characters	varchar / VARCHAR2	Character strings	Maximum
Long Characters	varchar / CLOB	Character strings	Maximum
Long Var Characters	text / CLOB	Character strings	Maximum
Text	text / CLOB	Character strings	Maximum
Multibyte	nchar / NCHAR	Multibyte character strings	Fixed
Variable Multibyte	nvarchar / NVARCHAR2	Multibyte character strings	Maximum

Time data types

The following time data types are available:

Standard data type	DBMS-specific physical data type	Content	Length
Date	date / DATE	Day, month, year	—
Time	time / DATE	Hour, minute, and second	—
Date & Time	datetime / DATE	Date and time	—
Timestamp	timestamp / TIMESTAMP	System date and time	—

Other data types

The following other data types are available:

Standard data type	DBMS-specific physical data type	Content	Length
Binary	binary / RAW	Binary strings	Maximum
Long Binary	image / BLOB	Binary strings	Maximum
Bitmap	image / BLOB	Images in bitmap format (BMP)	Maximum
Image	image / BLOB	Images	Maximum
OLE	image / BLOB	OLE links	Maximum
Other	—	User-defined data type	—
Undefined	undefined	Undefined. Replaced by the default data type at generation.	—