FIXED represents fixed point numbers. The first figure within the parentheses specifies the maximum number of digits; the second figure indicates the number of places to the right of the decimal point. If there is no second figure, zero is assumed. The maximum number of all digits is 18.
The data type FLOAT identifies positive or negative floating point numbers within a range of values of (10 to the power -64) to (10 to the power +62). The numeric string can have up to 18 digits in length.
CHAR is the data type for character strings of a maximum length of 4000. These strings can be stored in ASCII or EBCDIC code. If no specification is made, the strings are stored in the code of the particular computer. CHAR fields with lengths greater than 30 are internally stored as variable length fields.
To obtain a code-neutral storage, the field can be defined with the type CHAR BYTE.
VARCHAR defines CHAR fields with the additional property of being internally stored in variable length in any case.
LONG specifies an alphanumeric column of any length. LONG columns can be processed by INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements. However, there are some restrictions for the processing. LONG columns can be used, for example, for the storage of long texts.
DATE is the data type for date values. The representation depends on the selected date format. In SQL statements, every user must use the date format he selected for the representation. The current date can be retrieved by the function DATE.
If TIME was specified, time values can be stored in such a column. Also in this case, the representation depends on the chosen format. The current time can be retrieved by the function TIME.
TIMESTAMP allows a timestamp value to be stored that consists of a date and a time including microseconds. The current value can be retrieved using the function TIMESTAMP.
BOOLEAN defines a column that can only receive the values TRUE and FALSE.
There are some additional data types that are internally mapped to the data types specified above. These are the following types: INTEGER, SMALLINT, DECIMAL, FLOAT, DOUBLE PRECISION, REAL, and LONG VARCHAR. Their meaning is not described in detail.