MySQL Data Types

in this tutorial, you will learn about MySQL data types and how to use them effectively in the MySQL database design.
Database table contains multiple columns with specific data types such as numeric or string. MySQL provides more data types other than just numeric or string. Each data type in MySQL can be determined by the following characteristics:

• Kind of values it can represent.
• The space that takes up and whether the values are fixed-length or variable-length.
• Does the values of the data type can be indexed.
• How MySQL compares the value of a specific data type.

Numeric Data Types

You can find all SQL standard numeric types in MySQL including exact number data type and approximate numeric data types including integer, fixed-point and floating point. In addition, MySQL also supports BIT data type for storing bit field values. Numeric types can be signed or unsigned except the BIT type. The following table shows you the summary of numeric types in MySQL:

Numeric Types	Description
TINYINT	A very small integer
SMALLINT	A small integer
MEDIUMINT	A medium-sized integer
INT	A standard integer
BIGINT	A large integer
DECIMAL	A fixed-point number
FLOAT	A single-precision floating-point number
DOUBLE	A double-precision floating-point number
BIT	A bit field

String Data Types

In MySQL, string can hold anything from plain text to binary data such as images and files. String can be compared and searched based on pattern matching by using the LIKE operator or regular expression. The following table shows you the string data types in MySQL:

String Types	Description
CHAR	A fixed-length non-binary (character) string
VARCHAR	A variable-length non-binary string
BINARY	A fixed-length binary string
VARBINARY	A variable-length binary string
TINYBLOB	A very small BLOB (binary large object)
BLOB	A small BLOB
MEDIUMBLOB	A medium-sized BLOB
LONGBLOB	A large BLOB
TINYTEXT	A very small non-binary string
TEXT	A small non-binary string
MEDIUMTEXT	A medium-sized non-binary string
LONGTEXT	A large non-binary string
ENUM	An enumeration; each column value may be assigned one enumeration member
SET	A set; each column value may be assigned zero or more set members

Date and Time Data Types

MySQL provides types for date and time as well as a combination of date and time. In addition, MySQL also provides timestamp data type for tracking the changes of a row in a table. If you just want to store the year without date and month, you can use YEAR data type. The following table illustrates the MySQL date and time data types:

Date and Time Types	Description
DATE	A date value in ‘CCYY-MM-DD’ format
TIME	A time value in ‘hh:mm:ss’ format
DATETIME	A date and time value in ‘CCYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss’ format
TIMESTAMP	A timestamp value in ‘CCYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss’ format
YEAR	A year value in CCYY or YY format

Spatial Data Types

MySQL supports many spatial data types that contain various kind of geometrical and geographical values as shown in the following table:

Spatial Data Types	Description
GEOMETRY	A spatial value of any type
POINT	A point (a pair of X Y coordinates)
LINESTRING	A curve (one or more POINT values)
POLYGON	A polygon
GEOMETRYCOLLECTION	A collection of GEOMETRY values
MULTILINESTRING	A collection of LINESTRING values
MULTIPOINT	A collection of POINT values
MULTIPOLYGON	A collection of POLYGON values