Teradata Data Types

Each column in a table is associated with a data type. Data types specify what kind of values will be stored in the column. Every data value belongs to an SQL data type.

Teradata Database supports the following categories of data types. For a complete list of supported data types and detailed information about each data type, see the below table, such as:

Data Type	Description	Data Type Examples
Array	An Array data type is used to store and access the multidimensional data. It can store many values of the same specific data type in a sequential or matrix-like format.	One-dimensional (1-D) Array Multidimensional (n-D) Array
Byte	Byte data types store raw data as logical bitstreams. These data types are stored in the client system format. Teradata Database does not translate these data types. The data is transmitted directly from the memory of the client system.	BYTE VARBYTE BLOB (Binary Large Object)
Character	Character data types represent characters that belong to a given character set.	CHAR VARCHAR CLOB (Character Large Object)
Dataset	A complex data type that represents self-describing data stored in a format conforming to some schema.	AVRO
DateTime	DateTime data types represent a date, time, and timestamp values.	DATE TIME TIMESTAMP TIME WITH TIME ZONE TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE
Geospatial	Geospatial data types represent geographic information and provide a way for applications that manage, analyze, and display geographic information to interface with Teradata Database.	ST_Geometry MBR
Interval	Interval data types represent a period. For example, an Interval value can represent a period that includes several years, months, days, hours, minutes, or seconds.	Interval Year Interval Year to Month Interval Month Interval Day Interval Day to Hour Interval Day to Minute Interval Day to Second Interval Hour Interval Hour to Minute Interval Hour to second Interval Minute Interval Minute to second Interval Second
JSON	The JSON data type represents that data which are in JavaScript Object Notation format.	JSON
Numeric	Numeric data types represent a numeric value that is an exact numeric number such as integer or decimal or an approximate numeric number such as floating-point.	BYTEINT SMALLINT INTEGER BIGINT DECIMAL/NUMERIC FLOAT/REAL/DOUBLE PRECISION NUMBER
Parameter	Parameter data types are used only with input or result parameters in a function, method, stored procedure, or external stored procedure.	TD_ANYTYPE VARIANT_TYPE
Period	A Period data type represents a time period, where a period is a set of contiguous time granules that extends from a beginning bound up to but not including an ending bound.	PERIOD(DATE) PERIOD(TIME) PERIOD(TIME WITH TIME ZONE) PERIOD(TIMESTAMP) PERIOD(TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE)
UDT	UDT (User-Defined Type) data types are custom data types that are defined to model the structure and behavior of the data used by the applications.	Distinct Structured
XML	The XML data type represents XML content. The data is stored in a compact binary form that preserves the XML document's information set, including the hierarchy information and type information derived from XML validation.	XML

Data Type Attributes

The Teradata Database supports the following core data type attribute, such as:

Data Type Attribute	Description
Not Null	It means the fields of a column must contain a value; they cannot be null.
Uppercase	It specifies the character data for a column is stored as uppercase.
[NOT] Case-Specific	It specifies the case for character data comparisons and collations.
Format	It controls the display of expressions, column data, and conversions between data types.
Title	It defines a heading to display or print the different results from the column name, which is used by default.
As	It assigns a temporary name to an expression.
Named	Named is a Teradata extension to the ANSI standard. For ANSI compliance, use AS instead of Named.
Default	It is a user-defined default value that inserts in the field when a value is not specified for a column in an INSERT statement.
With Default	It is a system-defined default value that inserts in the field when a value is not specified for a column in an INSERT statement.
With Time Zone	It is used with the TIME or TIMESTAMP data type to specify a TIME or TIMESTAMP value with displacement from UTC as defined for the system.
Character Set	It specifies the server character set for a character column.