SQL Server: Data Types

The following is a list of datatypes available in SQL Server (Transact-SQL), which includes string, numeric, and date/time datatypes.

String Datatypes

The following are the String Datatypes in SQL Server (Transact-SQL):

Data Type Syntax	Maximum Size	Explanation
CHAR(size)	Maximum size of 8,000 characters.	Where *size* is the number of characters to store. Fixed-length. Space padded on right to equal size characters. Non-Unicode data.
VARCHAR(size) or VARCHAR(max)	Maximum size of 8,000 or max characters.	Where *size* is the number of characters to store. Variable-length. If max is specified, the maximum number of characters is 2GB. Non-Unicode data.
TEXT	Maximum size of 2GB.	Variable-length. Non-Unicode data.
NCHAR(size)	Maximum size of 4,000 characters.	Fixed-length. Unicode data.
NVARCHAR(size) or NVARCHAR(max)	Maximum size of 4,000 or max characters.	Where *size* is the number of characters to store. Variable-length. If max is specified, the maximum number of characters is 2GB. Unicode data.
NTEXT	Maximum size of 1,073,741,823 bytes.	Variable length. Unicode data.
BINARY(size)	Maximum size of 8,000 characters.	Where *size* is the number of characters to store. Fixed-length. Space padded on right to equal size characters. Binary data.
VARBINARY(size) or VARBINARY(max)	Maximum size of 8,000 or max characters.	Where *size* is the number of characters to store. Variable-length. If max is specified, the maximum number of characters is 2GB. Non-Binary data.
IMAGE	Maximum size of 2GB.	Variable length . Binary data.

The following are the Numeric Datatypes in SQL Server (Transact-SQL):

Data Type Syntax	Maximum Size	Explanation
BIT	Integer that can be 0, 1, or NULL.
TINYINT	0 to 255
SMALLINT	-32768 to 32767
INT	-2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647
BIGINT	-9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807
DECIMAL(m,d)	m defaults to 18, if not specified. d defaults to 0, if not specified.	Where m is the total digits and d is the number of digits after the decimal.
DEC(m,d)	m defaults to 18, if not specified. d defaults to 0, if not specified.	Where m is the total digits and d is the number of digits after the decimal. This is a synonym for the DECIMAL datatype.
NUMERIC(m,d)	m defaults to 18, if not specified. d defaults to 0, if not specified.	Where m is the total digits and d is the number of digits after the decimal. This is a synonym for the DECIMAL datatype.
FLOAT(n)	Floating point number. n defaults to 53, if not specified.	Where n is the number of number of bits to store in scientific notation.
REAL	Equivalent to FLOAT(24)
SMALLMONEY	– 214,748.3648 to 214,748.3647
MONEY	-922,337,203,685,477.5808 to 922,337,203,685,477.5807

The following are the Date/Time Datatypes in SQL Server (Transact-SQL):

Data Type Syntax	Maximum Size	Explanation (if applicable)
DATE	Values range from ‘0001-01-01’ to ‘9999-12-31’.	Displayed as ‘YYYY-MM-DD’
DATETIME	Date values range from ‘1753-01-01 00:00:00’ to ‘9999-12-31 23:59:59’. Time values range from ’00:00:00′ to ’23:59:59:997′	Displayed as ‘YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss[.mmm]’
DATETIME2(fractional seconds precision)	Date values range from ‘0001-01-01’ to ‘9999-12-31’. Time values range from ’00:00:00′ to ’23:59:59:9999999′.	Displayed as ‘YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss[.fractional seconds]’
SMALLDATETIME	Date values range from ‘1900-01-01’ to ‘2079-06-06’. Time values range from ’00:00:00′ to ’23:59:59′.	Displayed as ‘YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss’
TIME	Values range from ’00:00:00.0000000′ to ’23:59:59.9999999′	Displayed as ‘YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss[.nnnnnnn]’
DATETIMEOFFSET(fractional seconds precision)	Date values range from ‘0001-01-01’ to ‘9999-12-31’. Time values range from ’00:00:00′ to ’23:59:59:9999999′. Time zone offset range from -14:00 to +14:00.	Displayed as ‘YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss[.nnnnnnn]’ [{+\|-}hh:mm]