Data Types in SQL SERVER:

Data Type means the type of data which users provided to a specific column
In SQL Server 2 types of data types available which includes
1. System Defined Data Types
2. User Defined Data Types.
System Defined Data Types:
SQL Server already contains some data types called System Defined data types
or Predefined Data types or Built-in Data types. System Defined Data Types again
categorized into 4 types
a.
b.
c.
d.

Numeric Data types

String Data types
Date Time Data types
Special Data types

Numeric Data types:

These Data types are used to provide numeric information for the columns, these
includes
Data Type
BIT
TINYINT
SMALLINT
* INT
BIGINT
REAL
FLOAT
DECIMAL (P, S)

Size
0 or 1
1 BYTE
2 BYTES
4BYTES
8BYTES
4BYTES
8BYTES
5-17 BYTES

TINYINT, SMALLINT, INT, BIGINT are called Exact Numerics where as REAL,
FLOAT are called Approximate Numerics.

String Data types:

These Data types are used to provide character information for the columns, these
includes
Data Type
CHAR [(N)]
* VARCHAR [(N)]
TEXT
VARCHAR(MAX)

Size
1BYTE
1BYTE
16BYTES
16 GB

CHAR [(N)]: It is a fixed length data type, which occupies by default 1 byte memory.
When we N value then it occupies N bytes of memory where N is an integer. It follows
Static memory allocation process.
VARCHAR [(N)]: It is a variable length data type, which occupies by default 1 byte
memory. When we N value then it occupies N bytes of memory where N is an integer. It
follows dynamic memory allocation process.
Note : The Maximum limit for N is 8000,if it is more than 8000 characters we will use
TEXT or VARCHAR(MAX)
Date Time Data Type:
These data types are used to provide date oriented information to the columns,
these includes
Data Type
SMALLDATETIME
* DATETIME

Size

Range

2 BYTES
4BYTES

1900-01-01 TO 2079-06-06
1753-01-01 TO 9999-12-31

Special Data types:

These data types are used to provide miscellaneous information to the columns, these
includes
Data Type
*

Size

SMALLMONEY
4 BYTE
MONEY
8 BYTES
IMAGE
16 BYTES
VARBINARY (MAX)Unlimited
1. SQL_VARIANT

1. Binary Data types: These stores binary values of a given string in ordered to hide
the original string values.
Data Type
BINARY [(N)]
* VARBINARY [(N)]

Size
1BYTE
1BYTE

2. Unicode Data types: These Data types are used to store Unicode information,
these includes
Data Type
NCHAR [(N)]
* NVARCHAR [(N)]
NTEXT
II. User Defined Data Types:

Size
2BYTE
2BYTE
16BYTES

When user create a data type then that data type is called user defined data type
Syntax:
CREATE TYPE USER_DEFINED_DATATYPE FROM SYS_DEFINED_DATATYPE
Ex:
CREATE TYPE MYINT FROM INT
CREATE TYPE MYFLOAT FROM FLOAT
CREATE TYPE CASH FROM MONEY