Data types

The following table summarizes the internal data types that Vertica supports.

The following table summarizes the internal data types that Vertica supports. It also shows the default placement of null values in projections. The Size column lists uncompressed bytes.

Data Type Size / bytes Description NULL Sorting
Binary
BINARY 1 to 65,000 Fixed-length binary string NULLS LAST
VARBINARY (synonyms: BYTEA, RAW) 1 to 65,000 Variable-length binary string NULLS LAST
LONG VARBINARY 1 to 32,000,000 Long variable-length binary string NULLS LAST
Boolean
BOOLEAN 1 True or False or NULL NULLS LAST
Character / Long
CHAR 1 to 65,000 Fixed-length character string NULLS LAST
VARCHAR 1 to 65,000 Variable-length character string NULLS LAST
LONG VARCHAR 1 to 32,000,000 Long variable-length character string NULLS LAST
Date/Time
DATE 8 A month, day, and year NULLS FIRST
TIME 8 A time of day without timezone NULLS FIRST
TIME WITH TIMEZONE 8 A time of day with timezone NULLS FIRST
TIMESTAMP (synonyms: DATETIME, SMALLDATETIME) 8 A date and time without timezone NULLS FIRST
TIMESTAMP WITH TIMEZONE 8 A date and time with timezone NULLS FIRST
INTERVAL 8 The difference between two points in time NULLS FIRST
INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND 8 An interval measured in days and seconds NULLS FIRST
INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH 8 An interval measured in years and months NULLS FIRST
Approximate Numeric
DOUBLE PRECISION 8 Signed 64-bit IEEE floating point number, requiring 8 bytes of storage NULLS LAST
FLOAT 8 Signed 64-bit IEEE floating point number, requiring 8 bytes of storage NULLS LAST
FLOAT(n) 8 Signed 64-bit IEEE floating point number, requiring 8 bytes of storage NULLS LAST
FLOAT8 8 Signed 64-bit IEEE floating point number, requiring 8 bytes of storage NULLS LAST
REAL 8 Signed 64-bit IEEE floating point number, requiring 8 bytes of storage NULLS LAST
Exact Numeric
INTEGER 8 Signed 64-bit integer, requiring 8 bytes of storage NULLS FIRST
INT 8 Signed 64-bit integer, requiring 8 bytes of storage NULLS FIRST
BIGINT 8 Signed 64-bit integer, requiring 8 bytes of storage NULLS FIRST
INT8 8 Signed 64-bit integer, requiring 8 bytes of storage NULLS FIRST
SMALLINT 8 Signed 64-bit integer, requiring 8 bytes of storage NULLS FIRST
TINYINT 8 Signed 64-bit integer, requiring 8 bytes of storage NULLS FIRST
DECIMAL 8+ 8 bytes for the first 18 digits of precision, plus 8 bytes for each additional 19 digits NULLS FIRST
NUMERIC 8+ 8 bytes for the first 18 digits of precision, plus 8 bytes for each additional 19 digits NULLS FIRST
NUMBER 8+ 8 bytes for the first 18 digits of precision, plus 8 bytes for each additional 19 digits NULLS FIRST
MONEY 8+ 8 bytes for the first 18 digits of precision, plus 8 bytes for each additional 19 digits NULLS FIRST
Spatial
GEOMETRY 1 to 10,000,000 Coordinates expressed as (x,y) pairs, defined in the Cartesian plane. NULLS LAST
GEOGRAPHY 1 to 10,000,000 Coordinates expressed in longitude/latitude angular values, measured in degrees NULLS LAST
UUID
UUID 16 Stores universally unique identifiers (UUIDs). NULLS FIRST
Complex
ARRAY 1 to 32,000,000 Collection of values of a primitive or complex type.

Native array: same as the element type

Non-native array: cannot be used to order projections

ROW 1 to 32,000,000 Structure of property-value pairs. Cannot be used to order projections
SET 1 to 32,000,000 Collection of unique values of a primitive type. Same as the primitive type