Understanding the Data Type Environments

TimesTen supports PL/SQL data types and the interactions between PL/SQL data types, TimesTen data types, and client application program data types. Data type conversions and data type mappings are supported.

There are three distinct environments to consider when discussing data types:

• PL/SQL programs that contain variables and constants that use PL/SQL data types

• TimesTen SQL statements that use database rows, columns, and constants

  These elements are expressed using TimesTen SQL data types.

• Application programs that interact with the database and the PL/SQL programming language

  Application programs are written in programming languages such as C and Java and contain variables and constants that use data types from these programming languages.

Table 3-1 summarizes the environments and gives examples of data types for each environment.

Table 3-1 Summarizing the Data Type Environments

Environment	Data Type Examples
PL/SQL programs	NUMBER, PLS_INTEGER, VARCHAR2, STRING, DATE, TIMESTAMP
TimesTen SQL statements	TT_BIGINT, TT_INTEGER, BINARY_FLOAT, VARCHAR2, DATE, TIMESTAMP
Application programs	int, double, String