XMLDB column types

XMLDB Documentation > XMLDB column types

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This page will show, once finished, one compatibility matrix of column types for each of the RDBMS under which Moodle is expected to work.

The matrix

XMLDB Type	MySQL	PostgreSQL	Oracle	MSSQL
int	BIGINT (>9 digits) INT (>6 digits) MEDIUMINT (>4 digits) SMALLINT (>2 digits) TINYINT (<=2 digits)	BIGINT (>9 digits) INTEGER (>4 digits) SMALLINT (<=4 digits)	NUMBER	BIGINT (>9 digits) INTEGER (>4 digits) SMALLINT (<=4 digits)
number	NUMERIC	NUMERIC	NUMBER	DECIMAL
float	FLOAT (< 6 dec. positions) DOUBLE (>= 6 dec. positions)	REAL (< 6 dec. positions) DOUBLE PRECISION (>= 6 dec. positions)	NUMBER	REAL (< 6 dec. positions) FLOAT (>= 6 dec. positions)
char size limit	VARCHAR <5.0.3 0-255 chars, >=5.0.3 0-65535 chars	VARCHAR about 1GB ot text	VARCHAR2 4000 bytes	NVARCHAR 4000 chars
text	LONGTEXT MEDIUMTEXT TEXT	TEXT	CLOB	NTEXT
binary	LONGBLOB MEDIUMBLOB BLOB	BYTEA	BLOB	IMAGE
datetime(*)	DATETIME	TIMESTAMP	DATE	DATETIME

(*) Note that, although datetime types are supported by XMLDB, all datetime/timestamp columns under Moodle are declared as integer(10) and filled with Unix timestamps, so this type of column shouldn't be used at all (in fact, the XMLDB Editor doesn't show them as an available option).

Some official links

• MySQL: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/data-types.html
• PostgreSQL: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/7.4/static/datatype.html
• SQL*Server: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/tsqlref/ts_da-db_7msw.asp
• Oracle: http://www.cs.umbc.edu/help/oracle8/server.815/a68003/01_04blt.htm