OR 12.0 | Data Types

Language Reference Guide > Language Reference Guide > Language Elements > Data Types

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Data Types

When you explicitly declare a variable, you must assign a data type to it. A simple variable can be any of the following supported data types:

Ingres DBMS Intrinsic Data Type	OpenROAD Intrinsic Data Type	OpenROAD System Class	OpenROAD Built-in Scalar Object	Client-side Coercion	Server-side Coercion
char	char	—	StringObject	yes	yes
character	char	—	StringObject	yes	yes
varchar	varchar	—	StringObject	yes	yes
character varying	varchar	—	StringObject	yes	yes
long varchar	not supported	LongVcharObject	—	no	no
clob	not supported	LongVcharObject	—	no	no
character large object	not supported	LongVcharObject	—	no	no
char large object	not supported	LongVcharObject	—	no	no
nchar	nchar*	—	StringObject	yes	yes
nvarchar	nvarchar*	—	StringObject	yes	yes
long nvarchar	not supported	—	—	yes	yes
nclob	not supported	—	—	no	no
nchar large object	not supported	—	—	no	no
national character large object	not supported	—	—	no	no
integer	integer, integer4	—	IntegerObject	yes	yes
integer4	integer, integer4	—	IntegerObject	yes	yes
smallint	smallint, integer2	—	IntegerObject	yes	yes
integer2	smallint, integer2	—	IntegerObject	yes	yes
bigint	integer8	—	none	yes	yes
integer8	integer8	—	IntegerObject	yes	yes
tinyint	integer1	—	—	yes	yes
integer1	integer1	—	IntegerObject	yes	yes
decimal	decimal	—	DecimalObject	yes	yes
float	float, float8	—	FloatObject	yes	yes
float8	float, float8	—	FloatObject	yes	yes
double precision	float, float8	—	FloatObject	yes	yes
float4	float4, real	—	FloatObject	yes	yes
real	float4, real	—	FloatObject	yes	yes
date	date	—	DateObject	yes	yes
ansidate	not supported	—	—	no	yes
ingresdate	date	—	DateObject	yes	yes
time	not supported	—	—	no	yes
time with time zone	not supported	—	—	no	yes
time without time zone	not supported	—	—	no	yes
time with local time zone	not supported	—	—	no	yes
timestamp	not supported	—	—	yes**	yes
timestamp with time zone	not supported	—	—	yes**	yes
timestamp without time zone	not supported	—	—	yes**	yes
interval year to month	not supported	—	—	no	yes
interval day to second	not supported	—	—	no	yes
money	money	—	MoneyObject	yes	yes
object key	not supported	—	—	no	no
table key	not supported	—	—	no	no
byte	not supported	—	—	no	no
byte varying	not supported	—	—	no	no
long byte	not supported	LongByteObject	—	no	no
blob	not supported	LongByteObject	—	no	no
binary long object	not supported	LongByteObject	—	no	no
numeric	numeric	—	—	no	no
dec	decimal	—	DecimalObject	no	no
boolean	not supported	—	—	no	yes

*OpenROAD transparent Unicode support negates the need for nchar and nvarchar data types to be used in OpenROAD 4GL applications. The nchar and nvarchar data types, introduced in OpenROAD 5.0, can be used only in a limited number of ways. The varchar data type with UTF8 encoding is all that is needed for Unicode support; to prevent nchar and nvarchar data types from being used accidentally, setthe environment variable, II_W4GL_ALLOW_NVARCHAR, to FALSE. If the variable is set to TRUE (the default), the nchar and nvarchar data types may be declared and used in OpenROAD 4GL applications. For more information about II_W4GL_ALLOW_NVARCHAR, see the Workbench User Guide.

Another environment variable, II_W4GL_PASS_NVARCHAR_AS_WCHAR, if set to TRUE, will pass any user 3GL procedure parameters of the data type nvarchar as wide chars to the user 3GL procedure. If it is set to FALSE, nvarchars will be coerced to chars before passing them to the user 3GL procedure. The default is FALSE. For more information about II_W4GL_PASS_NVARCHAR_AS_WCHAR, see the Workbench User Guide.

**Loss of precision

For more information about a specific data type, such as the length, see Storage Formats of Data Types. If you are using Enterprise Access, see the Enterprise Access documentation regarding data type specifics.

A reference or array variable can be any named user class or system class. For information about creating a named user class, see the Workbench User Guide.

By default, all data types are nullable. You can use the not null clause to declare a data type non-nullable. However, a class data type is always nullable.

Last modified date: 06/25/2024