Supported Data Types

This section provides information about the data types supported in BEA Liquid Data for WebLogic^TM and the Data View Builder. The following topics are included:

• Overview

• JDBC Types

• JDBC Names

• Oracle Names

• Microsoft SQL Server Names

• DB2 Names

• Sybase Names

 

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Overview

In relational databases, data types are described using two methods. The conventional way is to use a JDBC number. For example, an integer is 4, varchar is 12, a date is 91, an so on. These numbers are represented by constants in the java.sql.Types class, such as Types.INTEGER = 4 and Types.VARCHAR = 12. This numbering system describes all the JDBC standardized types. However, there are many vendor-specific types, and most of them use the default JDBC number 1111, meaning "other." For this method, there is a name instead of a number associated with each type.

The query generation engine first looks at the JDBC number for a match. If no match occurs, then it uses the name. For example, if the number is 1111, then the query generation engine looks for a name. If there is no match found for either one, the query generation engine treats the column as a string.

Depending on the type of database you access, you need to map external database fields with a compatible data type when you invoke Liquid Data functions. You will notice that some external data types are not supported by Liquid Data. You may need to transform these data types to a supported type before you access that data in a query. The following tables can help you make these decisions.

 

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JDBC Types

The following table maps the JDBC type to the appropriate data type that you should use with Liquid Data.

JDBC Type	Liquid Data Data Type
Types.ARRAY	not supported
Types.BIGINT	long
Types.BINARY	string
Types.BIT	boolean
Types.BLOB	not supported
Types.CHAR	string
Types.CLOB	not supported
Types.DATE	date
Types.DECIMAL	decimal
Types.DOUBLE	double
Types.FLOAT	double
Types.INTEGER	integer
Types.JAVA_OBJECT	not supported
Types.LONGVARBINARY	string
Types.LONGVARCHAR	string
Types.NUMERIC	decimal
Types.REAL	float
Types.REF	string
Types.SMALLINT	short
Types.STRUCT	not supported
Types.TIME	time
Types.TIMESTAMP	dateTime
Types.TINYINT	byte
Types.VARBINARY	string
Types.VARCHAR	string

 

 

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JDBC Names

The following table maps the JDBC name to Liquid Data data types.

JDBC Name	Liquid Data Data Type
ARRAY	not supported
BIGINT	long
BINARY	string
BIT	boolean
BLOB	not supported
CHAR	string
CLOB	not supported
DATE	date
DEC	decimal
DECIMAL	decimal
DOUBLE	double
FLOAT	double
INTEGER	integer
JAVA_OBJECT	not supported
LONGVARBINARY	string
LONGVARCHAR	string
NUM	decimal
NUMERIC	decimal
REAL	float
REF	string
SMALLINT	short
STRUCT	not supported
TIME	time
TIMESTAMP	dateTime
TINYINT	byte
VARBINARY	string
VARCHAR	string

 

 

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Oracle Names

The following table maps Oracle names to Liquid Data data types.

Oracle Name	Liquid Data Data Type
FLOAT	float
BFILE	not supported
LONG	not supported
LONG RAW	not supported
NCHAR	string
NCLOB	not supported
NUMBER	decimal
NVARCHAR2	string
RAW	string
ROWID	string
UROWID	not supported
VARCHAR2	string

 

 

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Microsoft SQL Server Names

The following table maps Microsoft SQL Server names to Liquid Data data types.

SQL Name	Liquid Data Data Type
DATETIME	dateTime
IMAGE	not supported
INT	integer
MONEY	float
NTEXT	string// too big?
NVARCHAR	string
SMALLDATETIME	dateTime
SMALLMONEY	float
SQL_VARIANT	string
UNIQUEIDENTIFIER	string

 

 

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DB2 Names

The following table maps DB2 data types to Liquid Data data types.

DB2 Name	Liquid Data Data Type
CHARACTER	string
CHARACTER (for bit data)	string
DATALINK	string
LONG VARCHAR	string
LONG VARCHAR (for bit data)	string
VARCHAR (for bit data)	string

 

 

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Sybase Names

The following table maps Sybase data types to Liquid Data data types.

Sybase Name	Liquid Data Data Type
SYSNAME	string
TEXT	string