USER MANUALS

Data Types

The Virtual DataPort catalog includes a group of predefined data types. These types can be divided into two groups: basic types and compound types.

Virtual DataPort data types
<Virtual DataPort data type> ::=
      blob
    | boolean
    | date
    | decimal
    | double
    | float
    | int
    | intervaldaysecond
    | intervalyearmonth
    | localdate
    | long
    | text
    | time
    | timestamp
    | timestamptz
    | xml
    | <Virtual DataPort compound data type>

<Virtual DataPort compound data type> ::=
      array
    | register

The basic data types supported are:

  • int. Integer number. The maximum value is +2^31-1 (2,147,483,647) and the minimum, -2^31 (-2,147,483,648).

  • long. Long integer number. The maximum value is 2 63 - 1 (9,223,372,036,854,775,807) and the minimum, -2 63 (-9,223,372,036,854,775,808).

  • float. Single-precision 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point. Its range of values is explained in the section Floating-Point Types, Formats, and Values of the Java Language Specification.

  • double. Double-precision 64-bit IEEE 754 floating point. Its range of values is explained in the section Floating-Point Types, Formats, and Values of the Java Language Specification.

  • decimal. Signed decimal number with arbitrary-precision.

  • boolean. Logical value: true or false or unknown (null).

  • text. Character string.

  • date (deprecated). Timestamp with a time zone displacement. Maintained for compatibility reasons.

  • localdate. Date without a time zone (year, month and day)

  • time. Time without a time zone (hour, minute, second and millisecond).

  • timestamp. Timestamp without a time zone (year, month, day, hour, minute, second and millisecond).

  • timestamptz. Timestamp with a time zone displacement.

  • intervaldaysecond. Duration of a period of time with a precision that can include any set of contiguous fields other than YEAR or MONTH.

  • intervalyearmonth. Duration of a period of time with a precision that includes a YEAR field or a MONTH field, or both.

  • blob. Binary value. These values cannot take part in query conditions.

  • xml. XML document or XML fragment.

Datetime Types

The next section (Data Types for Dates, Timestamps and Intervals) explains the datetime types in detail.

Compound Types

In Virtual DataPort you can define compound data types to model hierarchical data such as the data obtained from SOAP Web services or XML documents. The section Defining a Data Type explains how to define compound types.

The compound data types are:

  • register. Compound data with an internal and heterogeneous structure, i.e. the fields into which the data are subdivided are not all the same type.

  • array. List of elements of the same register type.

Numeric Types

The numeric type int does not have overflow protection. Therefore, an arithmetic operation involving two int values will return an incorrect value when the result of the operation exceeds the range of the data type. The range of this data type goes from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647. When applying an arithmetic operation over an int value, consider converting the input values of the operation to a long or decimal when the result of the arithmetic operation may exceed its range.

For example, very probably the following query will return an invalid value:

SELECT amount_in_millions * 1000000 AS amount

To avoid this issue, convert the column amount_in_millions to long:

SELECT cast('long', amount_in_millions) * 1000000 AS amount

Note that the cast has to be applied over the input value of the operation (amount_in_millions). Casting the result of the multiplication will not solve the problem.

The type decimal is not affected by this because it has arbitrary precision (i.e. there is no limit on its precision).

The data types long, float and double do not have an overflow protection either. However, their range is much higher so it is very difficult to exceed their range.

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