When creating a new table, we need to specify the data type for each column we want there to exist in the table. A data type is simply a specification of what kind of data is stored in that column. Take a look at the CREATE TABLE statement below.
In the statement, id and age store integer data, name and joiningDate store text data, resume stores a file, and graduationPercentage stores decimal values. The data types against them show similar values.
Here are a few valid data types in SQLITE, the database this course runs on.
| INTEGER | Stores values that are integer in nature |
| REAL | Stores floating point numbers/decimal numbers |
| TEXT | Stores character data |
| BLOB | Stores binary large objects, like files |
| NULL | When the data type is not clear |
Other databases like MySQL and PostgreSQL have many similar to this and many other data types, sometimes many specializations of a single kind like INTEGER and TEXT. For example, MySQL supports INT, TINYINT, SMALLINT, MEDIUMINT and BIGINT as different variations for INTEGER, and VARCHAR, TEXT for various kinds of texts.