SQL Guide : Data types
  
Data types
The tables in this appendix list the supported data types by category.
Abbreviation
Description
DEFLEN
The defined length of the column; for example, for CHAR(24) the precision and length is 24
DEFPREC
The defined precision; for example, for NUMERIC(10,3) it is 10
DEFSCALE
The defined scale; for example, for NUMERIC(10,3), it is 3
MAXLEN
The maximum length of column
N/A
Not applicable
Column values in the data type tables
Size (range)
The size (range) of a numeric column refers to the minimum and maximum values the column can store.
The size of character columns refers to the maximum length of data that can be stored in the column of that data type.
Precision
The precision of a numeric column refers to the maximum number of digits used by the data type of the column.
The precision of a non-numeric column refers to the defined length of the column.
Scale
The scale of a numeric column refers to the maximum number of digits to the right of the decimal point. For the approximate floating point number columns, the scale is undefined because the number of digits to the right of the decimal point is not fixed.
Length
The length of a column is the maximum number of bytes returned to the application when data is transferred to its default C type.
For character data, the length does not include the null termination byte. The length of a column may differ from the number of bytes needed to store the data on the data source.
Display size
The display size of a column is the maximum number of bytes needed to display data in character form.
See also
Character data types
Numeric data types
Binary data types
Date data type
Time data type
Timestamp data type
Smallest possible non-zero numbers
BLOBs and CLOBs