Supported SQL Server datatypes

The SQL Native Client database interface supports the datatypes listed in Table 8-1

Table 8-1: Supported datatypes for Microsoft SQL Server 2005

Binary

Real

Bit

SmallDateTime

Character (fewer than 255 characters)

SmallInt

DateTime

SmallMoney

Decimal

Text

Float

Timestamp

Identity

TinyInt

Image

VarBinary(max)

Int

VarBinary(n)

Money

VarChar(max)

Numeric

VarChar(n)

NVarChar(max)

XML

NVarChar(n)

The XML datatype is a built-in datatype in SQL Server 2005 that enables you to store XML documents and fragments in a SQL Server database. You can use this datatype as a column type when you create a table.

In SQL Server 2005, the VarChar(max), NVarChar(max), and VarBinary(max) datatypes store very large values (up to 2^31 bytes). You can use these datatypes to obtain metadata, define new columns, and query data from the columns.