iGCSE Data Types

Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson you will be able to:
Identify different data types
Select appropriate data types for a given set of data

1. Which of the following can be stored as LOGICAL/BOOLEAN

data and WHY?
Field Name

Example
Data

Boolean
or not?

Date of birth

19/07/196
5

Not

Door status

Open

Boolean

Number of
staples

34

Not

Has 4 legs

Yes

Boolean

Reason
Because they can be only
one of two available
values and there is more
than one value.
Because a door can either
be opened or closed.
Because they can only be
one of the two available
values.
Because it either has 4
legs or it doesnt.

2. Select a data type and explain why youve chosen it for each
field in the table below.
Field Name

Example
Data

Data Type

Reason

Title

Mr/Mrs

Boolean

Because Title can be one

of two available words.

Phone Number

0121 222
9999

Alphanume
ric

Gender

Boolean

Date of Birth

01/01/190
0

Date

Country

Germany

Alphanume
ric

Because this is used to

hold phone numbers.
Because gender can be
one of two available
words- male/female.
Because it is a form of a
date
Because this is a string of
text.

3. Explain the advantages of storing a yes/no question as

BOOLEAN instead of ALPHANUMERIC.
Boolean uses two values and alphanumeric uses more than two values.

4. Explain why there is a need to have more than one format

available for storing the date.

iGCSE Data Types

Because this will help keep the information organised and therefore the
data wont get lost easily.