PostgreSQL Data Types

Introduction to PostgreSQL Data Types

PostgreSQL Data Types are the supported data types that are defined while creating the database tables. There are several types of data types available with PostgreSQL, such as numeric, monetary, character, binary, Boolean, date/time and enumerated types. Each of the data types is used to store and process specific types of data. It supports both single-value data types such as integer and character, float and Boolean and mufti value or complex data types such as arrays, JSON, and interval. The enumerated data type has specific functionality to create a set of static values data set, such as defining months of a year.

All the applications that operate using the data must have a database where all of the application related to data is stored. As we know that the data has been considered a crucial part of any system, some platform must exist that can help in processing and managing the data. The data type may be defined as a kind of data. In simple terms, the variable that is assigned with one of the data types can store the value of that data type only. For instance, if any variable is supposed to store the integer values only, then in all the cases, it will store the integer value only. If the user tries to feed the value of different data types in that variable, it will lead to an error.

Different PostgreSQL Data Types

Given below are different PostgreSQL Types:

• Numeric data types
• Monetary data types
• Character data types
• Binary data types
• Date/Time data types
• Boolean data types
• Enumerated data types

1. Numeric Data Types

It mainly provides two distinct types of numeric data types.

• Integer
• Floating point numbers

Integer Data Type

The variable defined with the integer data type can only store the integer value. The value must be the integer value else; it will end up with throwing the error. For example, if a variable named i is supposed to store the integer value, it will only hold the integer value.

Example: – 1,200,459,354 etc.

In PostgreSQL, basically, three kinds of integer present are as follows:

• Small Integer: The storage size of the small integer is 2 bytes.

The range of small integer is -32768 to +32767

• Integer: The storage size of the integer is 4 bytes.

The range of integer is -2147483648 to +2147483647

• Big Integer: The storage size of big integer is 8 bytes.

The range of big integer is -9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807

Code:

# create table num_test (id smallint, number int, salary bigint);

Output:

Floating point number

Floating-point numbers mainly divide into three types are as follows:

• Float
• Numeric
• Real or float8

Float: This is floating point number precision in PostgreSQL. Range if floating point is at least n and a maximum of 8 bytes. It is also called double-precision data types.

Numeric:  This is a real number data type in PostgreSQL. Numeric p and s are the exact numbers in numeric data types.

Real: It is a 4-byte floating point no in PostgreSQL data types.

Code:

# create table num_test1 (id real, number numeric, salary float);

Output:

2. Monetary Data Types

Monetary data types in PostgreSQL stores the current amount with a fractional fixed precision number. The range of monetary data type in PostgreSQL is -92233720368547758.08 to +92233720368547758.07

Code:

# create table mon_test (salary money, currency money);

Output:

3. Character Data Types

In this, there are mainly three distinct character data types available.

• Char
• Varchar
• Text

Char Data Type:  The char data type is used to store a single character value. It is usually preferred to be used at the place where it needs to store just a single character. If the user tries to put more than one character in this, it will lead to an error. The variable storing the char values occupies very little space of the storage.

Example: ‘A’, ‘a’, ‘m’ etc

Text Data Type:  The variable with data type as the text can store the long string values. In all the cases where the length of the text that has to be stored is unknown, one can use the text data type. It is also known as a variable-length character string in PostgreSQL. In these data types, text data is called a character string with unlimited records.

Example: “Hello”, “Congrats” etc

Varchar(n) Data Type: Varchar data type with some number written along with it denotes that it can store or hold only the number of characters written next to it. In these data types, we can store n number of characters.

For example, if we write varchar(9), it means that the variable will only be able to hold the maximum of nice characters.

Example: “ABCDEFGHI”, “Hello Hey”

Code:

# create table char_test (first_name char(10), middle_name varchar(20), last_name text);

Output:

4. Binary Data Types

PostgreSQL binary data types allow the storage of binary string in PostgreSQL. Its variable length is binary data types.

Code:

# create table bin_test (id bytea, dept_no bytea, salary bytea);

Output:

5. Date/Time data Types  

The time data type is assigned to the variable that is supposed to store only the time value. There should be some particular format of time that has to be stored in the time data type variable. It is one of the most important data types in PostgreSQL as it is used to keep track of transactions.

Example: 12:00:36, 01:06:56

Below is the date/time data types available in PostgreSQL are as follows:

• Date
• Time
• Timestamp
• Timestamptz
• Interval

Date: This data type only stores date. It will not store any time. The low value of this data type is 4713 BC, and the highest value is 294276 AD.

Time: This data type only stores time. It will not store any date. The low value of this data type is 4713 BC, and the highest value is 5874897 AD.

Timestamp: This data type stores the date and time. It will not store any timestamp. The low value of this data type is 4713 BC, and the highest value is 294276 AD.

Timestamptz: This data type stores the date and time with the timestamp. The low value of this data type is 4713 BC, and the highest value is 294276 AD.

Interval: The storage size of these data types is 12 bytes. It will describe the time interval value.

Code:

testing=# create table dt_test (start_date date, start_time time, completion_time timestamp, completion_date timestamptz, no_of_year interval);

Output:

6. Boolean Data Types

Boolean is one of the data types supported by PostgreSQL. This data type can store two values only that are “True” and “False”. In usual cases, the Boolean values are used to verify if the statement is correct as when the statement is correct, it returns the true value; else, the value will be false. This data type is also used while decision making, and based on either of the two values; the decision has to be taken by the program.

Example: “True”, “False”

Code:

# create table boolean_test (status boolean, flag boolean, state boolean);

Output:

7. Enumerated Data Types

It comprises a static order set of values. This is closely similar to the enum data types, which was supported in the programming language. Enumerated data type in PostgreSQL creates using create type command. In this, if we create enumerated data types once, it will use in any other type.

Code:

# CREATE TYPE year AS ENUM ('JAN', 'FEB', 'MAR', 'APR', 'MAY', 'JUN', 'JUL', 'AUG', 'SEP', 'OCT', 'NOV', 'DEC');

Output:

Some other Data Types in PostgreSQL

There are some other additional data types in PostgreSQL listed below.

• Interval Data Type: The variable that is assigned with the interval data type is capable of storing a particular time interval. It is concerned about the time and can be used to estimate the time in several cases. In the database, it is sincerely observed that which transaction has taken place at what interval and this data type helps us to manage the intervals. Example – ‘7 months ago, ‘2 years 5 hours 40 minutes
• Array: The array is used to store the set of string or set of any values, but the only restriction is that all the array values have to be of the same data type. Using the array makes the program ample convenient to be understood by everyone who was not the part while code was developed. Example – ARRAY [ 408)-589-5846′,'(408)-589-5555′ ]
• UUID Data Type:  The UUID data type is used to store the Universally Unique Identifiers, which are actually the values that are used throughout the program to identify anything uniquely. It is a special kind of data type that cannot be found in high-level programming languages. Example – 0e37df36-f698-11e6-8dd4–cb9ced3df976, a81bc81b-dead-4e5d-abff-90865d1e13b1
• JSON Data Type: The variable that is supposed to store the JSON values are assigned with the JSON data type. It is one of the most important data types used in PostgreSQL that is capable of holding the complex JSON data. Example – { “client”: “Doe”, “items”: {“product”: “Application”,”qty”: 7}}

Conclusion

PostgreSQL database management can be considered very useful while used for any application that has to work with the data. It has been designed to work with several kinds of data types where all the data types hold their own importance. Also, to keep track of the time while the transactions are done, there are data types like time, date, interval, etc., are present. In some of the operating systems like Kali Linux, it is available inbuilt. It makes it very easy for the developers to integrate their application with the database. They can also use the different types of data types that have been made available in PostgreSQL.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to PostgreSQL Data Types. Here we have discussed the basic meaning of different data types of PostgreSQL with additional data types in detail. You can also go through our other suggested articles to learn more –

1. PostgreSQL String Functions
2. PostgreSQL Architecture
3. PostgreSQL Features
4. Indexes in PostgreSQL