Each column in a table in a Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 database supports a set of data types that specify the type of data that the column can hold.

There might be minor differences between MicrosoftSQL Server and SQL Server Compact 3.5 in the way data types are promoted when the execution of a function results in an overflow or underflow.

SQL Server Compact 3.5 supports the following data types.

Data Type

Description

bigint

Integer (whole number) data from –2^63 (–9,223,372,036,854,775,808) through 2^63–1 (9,223,372,036,854,775,807). Storage size is 8 bytes.

integer

Integer (whole number) data from –2^31 (–2,147,483,648) through 2^31–1 (2,147,483,647).

Storage size is 4 bytes.

smallint

Integer data from –32,768 to 32,767. Storage size is 2 bytes.

tinyint

Integer data from 0 to 255. Storage size is 1 byte.

bit

Integer data with a value of either 1 or 0.

Storage size is 1 bit.

numeric (p, s)

Synonyms:

decimal(p,s) and dec (p,s)

Fixed-precision and scale-numeric data from –10^38+1 through 10^38–1. The p variable specifies precision and can vary between 1 and 38. The s variable specifies scale and can vary between 0 and p.

Storage size is 19 bytes.

money

Monetary data values from (–2^63/10000) (–922,337,203,685,477.5808) through 2^63–1 (922,337,203,685,477.5807), with accuracy to a ten-thousandth of a monetary unit. Storage size is 8 bytes.

float

Floating point number data from –1.79E +308 through 1.79E+308

Storage size is 8 bytes.

real

Floating precision number data from –3.40E+38 through 3.40E+38.

Storage size is 4 bytes.

datetime

Date and time data from January 1, 1753, to December 31, 9999, with an accuracy of one three-hundredth second, or 3.33 milliseconds. Values are rounded to increments of .000, .003, or .007 milliseconds.

Stored as two 4-byte integers. The first 4 bytes store the number of days before or after the base date, January 1, 1900. The base date is the system's reference date. Values for datetime earlier than January 1, 1753, are not permitted. The other 4 bytes store the time of day represented as the number of milliseconds after midnight. Seconds have a valid range of 0–59.

FormatExample
yyyy/mm/ddhh:mm:ss1947/08/15 03:33:20
mm/dd/yyyyhh:mm:ss04/15/1947 03:33:20
dd mmm yyyy hh:mm:ss15 Jan 1947 03:33:20
dd mmmm yyyy h:mm:ss15 January 1947 03:33:20

national character(n)

Synonym:nchar(n)

Fixed-length Unicode data with a maximum length of 4000 characters. Default length = 1. Storage size, in bytes, is two times the number of characters entered.

national character varying(n)

Synonym:nvarchar(n)

Variable-length Unicode data with a length of 1 to 4000 characters. Default length = 1. Storage size, in bytes, is two times the number of characters entered.

ntext¹

Variable-length Unicode data with a maximum length of (2^30–2)/2 (536,870,911) characters. Storage size, in bytes, is two times the number of characters entered.

ntext is no longer supported in string functions.

nchar

Fixed-length Unicode character data of n characters. n must be a value from 1 through 4,000. The storage size is two times n bytes.

binary(n)

Fixed-length binary data with a maximum length of 8000 bytes. Default length = 1.

Storage size is fixed, which is the length in bytes declared in the type.

varbinary(n)

Variable-length binary data with a maximum length of 8000 bytes. Default length = 1.

Storage size varies. It is the length of the value in bytes.

image¹

Variable-length binary data with a maximum length of 2^30–1 (1,073,741,823) bytes.

Storage is the length of the value in bytes.

uniqueidentifier

A globally unique identifier (GUID). Storage size is 16 bytes.

IDENTITY [(s, i)]

This is a property of a data column, not a distinct data type.

Only data columns of the integer data types can be used for identity columns. A table can have only one identity column. A seed and increment can be specified and the column cannot be updated.

s (seed) = starting value

i(increment) = increment value

ROWGUIDCOL

This is a property of a data column, not a distinct data type. It is a column in a table that is defined by using the uniqueidentifier data type. A table can have only one ROWGUIDCOL column.

Timestamp/rowversion

This is an automatically generated unique binary number.

Storage size is 8 bytes.

¹Ntext and image data is stored in a new data page when the number of bytes exceeds 256 in SQL Server Compact 3.5. This can affect the extent of compactness in a database, because SQL Server Compact 3.5 databases are compacted page-wise and not byte-wise.

For more information about SQL Server data types that require conversion in SQL Server Compact 3.5, see Differences Between SQL Server Compact and SQL Server.

Concepts

Data Types and RDA

Data Types and Replication