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MySQL 5.1 Reference Manual :: 10 Data Types :: 10.1 Data Type Overview :: 10.1.1 Overview of Numeric Types
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10.1.1. Overview of Numeric Types

A summary of the numeric data types follows. For additional information about properties of the numeric types, see Section 10.2, “Numeric Types”. Storage requirements are given in Section 10.5, “Data Type Storage Requirements”.

M indicates the maximum display width for integer types. The maximum legal display width is 255. Display width is unrelated to the range of values a type can contain, as described in Section 10.2, “Numeric Types”. For floating-point and fixed-point types, M is the total number of digits that can be stored.

If you specify ZEROFILL for a numeric column, MySQL automatically adds the UNSIGNED attribute to the column.

Numeric data types that allow the UNSIGNED attribute also allow SIGNED. However, these data types are signed by default, so the SIGNED attribute has no effect.

SERIAL is an alias for BIGINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT UNIQUE.

SERIAL DEFAULT VALUE in the definition of an integer column is an alias for NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT UNIQUE.

Warning

When you use subtraction between integer values where one is of type UNSIGNED, the result is unsigned unless the NO_UNSIGNED_SUBTRACTION SQL mode is enabled. See Section 11.9, “Cast Functions and Operators”.

  • BIT[(M)]

    A bit-field type. M indicates the number of bits per value, from 1 to 64. The default is 1 if M is omitted.

  • TINYINT[(M)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]

    A very small integer. The signed range is -128 to 127. The unsigned range is 0 to 255.

  • BOOL, BOOLEAN

    These types are synonyms for TINYINT(1). A value of zero is considered false. Nonzero values are considered true: 

    mysql> SELECT IF(0, 'true', 'false');
+------------------------+
| IF(0, 'true', 'false') |
+------------------------+
| false                  |
+------------------------+

mysql> SELECT IF(1, 'true', 'false');
+------------------------+
| IF(1, 'true', 'false') |
+------------------------+
| true                   |
+------------------------+

mysql> SELECT IF(2, 'true', 'false');
+------------------------+
| IF(2, 'true', 'false') |
+------------------------+
| true                   |
+------------------------+

    However, the values TRUE and FALSE are merely aliases for 1 and 0, respectively, as shown here: 

    mysql> SELECT IF(0 = FALSE, 'true', 'false');
+--------------------------------+
| IF(0 = FALSE, 'true', 'false') |
+--------------------------------+
| true                           |
+--------------------------------+

mysql> SELECT IF(1 = TRUE, 'true', 'false');
+-------------------------------+
| IF(1 = TRUE, 'true', 'false') |
+-------------------------------+
| true                          |
+-------------------------------+

mysql> SELECT IF(2 = TRUE, 'true', 'false');
+-------------------------------+
| IF(2 = TRUE, 'true', 'false') |
+-------------------------------+
| false                         |
+-------------------------------+

mysql> SELECT IF(2 = FALSE, 'true', 'false');
+--------------------------------+
| IF(2 = FALSE, 'true', 'false') |
+--------------------------------+
| false                          |
+--------------------------------+

    The last two statements display the results shown because 2 is equal to neither 1 nor 0.

    We intend to implement full boolean type handling, in accordance with standard SQL, in a future MySQL release.

  • SMALLINT[(M)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]

    A small integer. The signed range is -32768 to 32767. The unsigned range is 0 to 65535.

  • MEDIUMINT[(M)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]

    A medium-sized integer. The signed range is -8388608 to 8388607. The unsigned range is 0 to 16777215.

  • INT[(M)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]

    A normal-size integer. The signed range is -2147483648 to 2147483647. The unsigned range is 0 to 4294967295.

  • INTEGER[(M)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]

    This type is a synonym for INT.

  • BIGINT[(M)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]

    A large integer. The signed range is -9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807. The unsigned range is 0 to 18446744073709551615.

    SERIAL is an alias for BIGINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT UNIQUE.

    Some things you should be aware of with respect to BIGINT columns:

    • All arithmetic is done using signed BIGINT or DOUBLE values, so you should not use unsigned big integers larger than 9223372036854775807 (63 bits) except with bit functions! If you do that, some of the last digits in the result may be wrong because of rounding errors when converting a BIGINT value to a DOUBLE.

      MySQL can handle BIGINT in the following cases:

      • When using integers to store large unsigned values in a BIGINT column.

      • In MIN(col_name) or MAX(col_name), where col_name refers to a BIGINT column.

      • When using operators (+, -, *, and so on) where both operands are integers.

    • You can always store an exact integer value in a BIGINT column by storing it using a string. In this case, MySQL performs a string-to-number conversion that involves no intermediate double-precision representation.

    • The -, +, and * operators use BIGINT arithmetic when both operands are integer values. This means that if you multiply two big integers (or results from functions that return integers), you may get unexpected results when the result is larger than 9223372036854775807.

  • FLOAT[(M,D)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]

    A small (single-precision) floating-point number. Allowable values are -3.402823466E+38 to -1.175494351E-38, 0, and 1.175494351E-38 to 3.402823466E+38. These are the theoretical limits, based on the IEEE standard. The actual range might be slightly smaller depending on your hardware or operating system.

    M is the total number of digits and D is the number of digits following the decimal point. If M and D are omitted, values are stored to the limits allowed by the hardware. A single-precision floating-point number is accurate to approximately 7 decimal places.

    UNSIGNED, if specified, disallows negative values.

    Using FLOAT might give you some unexpected problems because all calculations in MySQL are done with double precision. See Section B.5.5.7, “Solving Problems with No Matching Rows”.

  • DOUBLE[(M,D)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]

    A normal-size (double-precision) floating-point number. Allowable values are -1.7976931348623157E+308 to -2.2250738585072014E-308, 0, and 2.2250738585072014E-308 to 1.7976931348623157E+308. These are the theoretical limits, based on the IEEE standard. The actual range might be slightly smaller depending on your hardware or operating system.

    M is the total number of digits and D is the number of digits following the decimal point. If M and D are omitted, values are stored to the limits allowed by the hardware. A double-precision floating-point number is accurate to approximately 15 decimal places.

    UNSIGNED, if specified, disallows negative values.

  • DOUBLE PRECISION[(M,D)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL], REAL[(M,D)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]

    These types are synonyms for DOUBLE. Exception: If the REAL_AS_FLOAT SQL mode is enabled, REAL is a synonym for FLOAT rather than DOUBLE.

  • FLOAT(p) [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]

    A floating-point number. p represents the precision in bits, but MySQL uses this value only to determine whether to use FLOAT or DOUBLE for the resulting data type. If p is from 0 to 24, the data type becomes FLOAT with no M or D values. If p is from 25 to 53, the data type becomes DOUBLE with no M or D values. The range of the resulting column is the same as for the single-precision FLOAT or double-precision DOUBLE data types described earlier in this section.

    FLOAT(p) syntax is provided for ODBC compatibility.

  • DECIMAL[(M[,D])] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]

    A packed “exact” fixed-point number. M is the total number of digits (the precision) and D is the number of digits after the decimal point (the scale). The decimal point and (for negative numbers) the “-” sign are not counted in M. If D is 0, values have no decimal point or fractional part. The maximum number of digits (M) for DECIMAL is 65. The maximum number of supported decimals (D) is 30. If D is omitted, the default is 0. If M is omitted, the default is 10.

    UNSIGNED, if specified, disallows negative values.

    All basic calculations (+, -, *, /) with DECIMAL columns are done with a precision of 65 digits.

  • DEC[(M[,D])] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL], NUMERIC[(M[,D])] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL], FIXED[(M[,D])] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]

    These types are synonyms for DECIMAL. The FIXED synonym is available for compatibility with other database systems.