Oracle 8 - Data types

o8-1

VARCHAR2(n)	Up to 2000 chars
LONG	Long text field, but only one per table.
NUMBER(n)	Positive or negative Integer of n digits
NUMBER(n,m)	Fixed decimal of m places.
DATE	Date in default format determined by the Database System configuration. Dates are basically output as fixed char formats.

Notes:
- Times are handled as dates
- For output, numbers are right justified, and decimal points are not aligned necessarily. Text is left justified.
- The output is padded with spaces when column headings are wider than the data.
- Null values are output as spaces unless converted by a function to some other character.
- SQL-PLUS allows columns to be specially formatted to over-ride the default output formats.
- Custom formats may cause overflow / truncation of output.