about different data types in MS Server 2005

[nischalinn]

I am new to database designing. I want to know about different data types in Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

1. bigint

2. binary(50)

3. nchar

4. ntext vs text

5. numeric

6. nvarchar

7. datetime vs smalldatetime

8. smallmoney vs money

9. sql_variant

10. timestamp

What are the appropriate use of such datatypes, I mean suppose when to use nvarchar and when to use ntext??

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Basically char is a fixed-length character string, so if you define char(8) and it contains the character 'A', it is still 8 characters long ('A␢␢␢␢␢␢␢', length 8).

On the other hand, varchar is a variable-length character string, and the contents equals what is entered ('A' = 'A', length 1).

Data type text is similar to varchar, but no longer supported by newer SQL servers, so it should not be used.

Data types nchar, nvarchar, and ntext are the same as above, but for multibyte (Unicode) character sets.

More info at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187752%28v=SQL.90%29.aspx

[gladiolus]

All data stored in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 must be compatible with one of these base data types. The cursor data type is the only system data type that cannot be assigned to a table column. It can be used only with variables and stored procedure parameters...