Data Type

An IDO property Data Type is one of the following:

  • Binary
  • Byte
  • Currency
  • Date
  • Decimal
  • EncryptedString
  • Float
  • GUID
  • Long Integer
  • NumSortedString
  • Short Integer
  • String

The default data type of an IDO property is usually the SQL Server data type on which a SQL Server user-defined data type is based. The user-defined data type is referred to as the Column Type attribute of the IDO property.

Data types in IDOs, WinStudio, and SQL Server map as shown in this table:

IDO Property Data Type WinStudio Data Type SQL Server Base Data Type Description of SQL Server Base Data Type
Binary BINARY binary, varbinary, image binary: Fixed-length binary data from 1 through 8,000 bytes.

varbinary: Variable-length binary data from 1 through 8,000 bytes.

image: Variable-length binary data from 0 through 231-1 (2,147,483,647) bytes.

Byte I1 tinyint Integers 0 through 255.
Currency CURRENCY money Fixed precision and scale numeric data from -10^38 +1 through 10^38 -1.
Date DATE datetime Date and time
Decimal DECIMAL decimal, numeric Fixed precision and scale numeric data from -10^38 +1 through 10^38 -1.
EncryptedString ENCRYPTEDCHAR nvarchar nvarchar: Variable-length Unicode data with a maximum length of 4,000 characters.

EncryptedString length should be 1.5 times the longest string stored in the column, with a minimum length of 24 characters.

Float R4, R8 float Floating point number data from - 1.79E + 308 through 1.79E + 308.
GUID CHAR uniqueidentifier A value is initialized by the SQL NEWID function or by converting from a string constant. A string constant is in the form xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx, where each x is a hexadecimal digit in the range 0-9 or a-f.
Long Integer I4 int Integers -2^31 (-2,147,483,648) through 2^31 - 1 (2,147,483,647).
NumSortedString NUMSORTCHAR nvarchar, nchar nvarchar: Variable-length Unicode data with a maximum length of 4,000 characters.

nchar: Fixed-length Unicode data with a maximum length of 4,000 characters.

Short Integer I2 smallint Integers -2^15 (-32,768) through 2^15 - 1 (32,767).
String CHAR nvarchar, nchar nvarchar: Variable-length Unicode data with a maximum length of 4,000 characters.

nchar: Fixed-length Unicode data with a maximum length of 4,000 characters.

NumSortedString in IDOs and NUMSORTCHAR in WinStudio are special cases of string data that are padded for the purpose of numeric sorting.