MariaDB Data Types

MariaDB is an open-source software It has implemented various performance improvements over MySQL. It includes various enhancements such as the Aria storage engine, the Thread Pool feature, and the MaxScale proxy, all of which provide better performance and scalability. MariaDB has a large number of users and contributors to support and solve doubts and so on.

In this article, we will talk about the various data types that MariaDB supports and their uses. These data types provide flexibility for storing various types of information in a MariaDB database.

Data Types in MariaDB

Data Type is the set of quantities that belong to a similar category. Data Types are the fundamental concept in computer science and database management. MariaDB supports a variety of data types that allow us to define the nature of the data that can be stored in each column of a table.

Each programming language and database management device has its own set of data types, and those kinds determine the character of operations that may be achieved on the data, the quantity of memory required to save the information, and the limitations of the data.

MariaDB Data Types

1. Numeric Data Types

Different kinds of numeric data types are supported by MariaDB. The provided numeric data types are as follows:

Data Types	Range	Description
TINYINT	0 and 255 (unsigned) or -128 and 127 (signed).	These are the 1-byte integers.
SMALLINT	-32768 to 32768 (signed) or 0 to 65535 (unsigned).	These are the 2-byte integers.
MEDIUMINT	0 to 16777215 (unsigned) or -8388608 to 8388607 (signed).	These are the 3-byte integers.
INT	-2147483648 to 2147483647 (signed) or 0 to 4294967295 (unsigned).	This is the 4-byte standard integer.
BIGINT	-9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 (signed) or 0 to 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 (unsigned).	These are the 8-byte large integers.
FLOAT	Not defined	32-bit single-precision floating point numbers are represented in this data type.
DOUBLE	Not defined	Stores double-precision floating point numbers. This data type occupies 64 bits in memory.
DECIMAL	Not defined	These are used for storing fixed-point numbers. It is specified with two parameters M and D, where M is the total number of digits and D is the number of digits after decimal point.
BIT	Not defined	Used for storing bit sequence, which are sequences of binary digits.

2. String Data Types

Some of the string data types are given below:

DATA TYPES	Maximum Size	DESCRIPTION
CHAR	255 characters	This is a fixed length string data type. Its default value is 1.
VARCHAR	255 characters	This is a variable length string data type. It can contain letters, number and special characters.
BINARY	255 characters	This is equal to CHAR data type but stores fixed length binary byte strings. It’s default value is 1.
VARBINARY	255 characters	This is equal to VARCHAR but stores variable length binary byte strings.
TINYBLOB	255 characters	BLOB stands for Binary Large Objects. It is variable-length binary string with a maximum length of size.
BLOB	65,535 characters	It is also a variable-length binary string with a maximum length of size.
MEDIUMBLOB	16,777,215 characters	It is also a variable-length binary string with a maximum length of size.
LONGBLOB	4,294,967,295 characters	It is also a variable-length binary string with a maximum length of size.
TINYTEXT	255 characters	This data type represents the variable-length string with a maximum length of size.
TEXT	65,535 characters	This data type represents the variable-length string with a maximum length of size.
MEDIUMTEXT	16,777,215 characters	It represents the variable-length string with a maximum length of size.
LONGTEXT	4,294,967,295 characters	This data type represents the variable-length string with a maximum length of size.
ENUM	varies	It is used to store a set of predefined values.
SET	varies	It is also similar to ENUM data type but allows for multiple values to be selected.

3. Date and Time Data Types

Also known as Temporal data types.

DATA TYPES	Range	Format
DATE	1000-01-01 to 9999-12-31	YYYY-MM-DD
TIME	-838:59:59 to 838:59:59	HH:MM:SS
DATETIME	1000-01-01 00:00:00 to 9999-12-31 23:59:59	YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
TIMESTAMP	1970-01-01 00:00:01 UTC to 2038-01-19 03:14:07 UTC	YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
YEAR	2 0r 4 digit	4 digit format.

4. Spatial Data Types

DATA TYPES	DESCRIPTION
GEOMETRY	This data type represents various geometric shapes like points, lines and polygons.
POINT	This data type represents a single point.
LINESTRING	Represents a sequence of connected line segments.
POLYGON	Represents a closed shape with a series of connected linear rings.
MULTIPOINT	Represents a collection of points.
MULTILINESTRING	Represents a collection of line strings.
MULTIPOLYGON	This data type represents a collection of polygons.
GEOMETRYCOLLECTION	Represents a collection of geometric objects of different types.

Conclusion

Selecting the appropriate data types is essential to building a efficient and effective database. Developers may optimize storage, improve query performance, and preserve data integrity by knowing the features of each type of data in MariaDB. Analyze the unique requirements of our data when we begin the process of designing our database and select the relevant data types.