The different data types in SQL can be broadly divided into the following categories:
Numeric: INTEGER, TINYINT, BIGINT, FLOAT, REAL, DECIMAL, NUMERIC
Date and time: DATE, TIME, DATETIME, TIMESTAMP
Character and string: CHAR, VARCHAR, TEXT, NCHAR, NVARCHAR, NTEXT
Binary: BINARY, VARBINARY, BLOB
Miscellaneous: CLOB, XML, CURSOR, ROWVERSION, HIERARCHYID, UNIQUEIDENTIFIER, SQL_VARIANT
Numeric data types are used to store numbers. The specific data type to use will depend on the range and precision of the values that you need to store. For example, if you need to store employee IDs, you could use the INTEGER data type. If you need to store product prices, you could use the DECIMAL data type.
Date and time data types are used to store dates and times. The specific data type to use will depend on the level of precision that you need. For example, if you need to store the date of an order, you could use the DATE data type. If you need to store the time that an order was placed, you could use the TIME data type.
Character and string data types are used to store text. The CHAR data type is used to store fixed-length strings, while the VARCHAR data type is used to store variable-length strings. The TEXT and NTEXT data types are used to store very large strings.
Binary data types are used to store binary data, such as images and files. The BINARY data type is used to store fixed-length binary data, while the VARBINARY data type is used to store variable-length binary data. The BLOB data type is used to store very large binary data.
Miscellaneous data types are used for a variety of purposes. The CLOB data type is used to store very large character or string data. The XML data type is used to store XML data. The CURSOR data type is used to declare and manipulate cursors. The ROWVERSION data type is used to track changes to rows in a table. The HIERARCHYID data type is used to store hierarchical data. The UNIQUEIDENTIFIER data type is used to generate globally unique identifiers (GUIDs). The SQL_VARIANT data type can be used to store any type of data.
