Oracle databases support a wide variety of data types depending on the need and the data that needs to be stored. The common data types supported by Oracle databases are:
1. Numeric data types - These data types are used to store numbers. Oracle supports various numeric data types ranging from integers to floating-point numbers. The numeric data types in Oracle are:
- NUMBER(precision, scale): This data type is used to store a fixed-point number with precision and scale. The precision denotes the total number of digits that can be stored, and the scale denotes the number of decimal places.
- INTEGER: This data type is used to store whole numbers with signed values. The range of values for an INTEGER is from -2147483648 to 2147483647.
- FLOAT(precision): This data type is used to store a floating-point number with precision. The precision denotes the total number of digits that can be stored.
- BINARY_FLOAT: This data type is used to store single-precision floating-point numbers.
- BINARY_DOUBLE: This data type is used to store double-precision floating-point numbers.
2. Character data types - These data types are used to store text values. Oracle supports various character data types ranging from single characters to large text blocks. The character data types in Oracle are:
- CHAR(size): This data type is used to store fixed-length character strings. The size denotes the number of characters that can be stored.
- VARCHAR2(size): This data type is used to store variable-length character strings. The size denotes the maximum number of characters that can be stored.
- CLOB: This data type is used to store large character strings.
3. Date and time data types - These data types are used to store date and time values. Oracle supports various date and time data types. The date and time data types in Oracle are:
- DATE: This data type is used to store date and time values with a precision of up to a second.
- TIMESTAMP: This data type is used to store date and time values with a precision of up to a fractional second.
- INTERVAL: This data type is used to store duration values.
4. LOB data types - These data types are used to store large objects such as images, audio, and video files. Oracle supports various LOB data types. The LOB data types in Oracle are:
- BLOB: This data type is used to store binary large objects.
- BFILE: This data type is used to store large binary files.
Overall, Oracle databases provide a wide range of data types to support different types of data and data processing needs.