Transact-SQL Reference

sp_datatype_info

Returns information about the data types supported by the current environment.

Syntax

sp_datatype_info [ [ @data_type = ] data_type ]
[ , [ @ODBCVer = ] odbc_version ]

Arguments

[@data_type =] data_type

Is the code number for the specified data type. To obtain a list of all data types, omit this parameter. data_type is int, with a default of 0.

[@ODBCVer =] odbc_version

Is the version of ODBC used. odbc_version is tinyint, with a default of 2.

Return Code Values

None

Result Sets

Column name	Data type	Description
TYPE_NAME	sysname	DBMS-dependent data type.
DATA_TYPE	smallint	Code for the ODBC type to which all columns of this type are mapped.
PRECISION	int	Maximum precision of the data type on the data source. NULL is returned for data types for which precision is not applicable. The return value for the PRECISION column is in base 10.
LITERAL_PREFIX	varchar(32)	Character(s) used before a constant. For example, a single quotation mark (') for character types and 0x for binary in Microsoft® SQL Server™.
LITERAL_SUFFIX	varchar(32)	Character(s) used to terminate a constant. For example, a single quotation mark (') for character types and none for binary.
CREATE_PARAMS	varchar(32)	Description of the creation parameters for this data type. For example, decimal is "precision, scale", float is NULL, and varchar is "max_length".
NULLABLE	smallint	Specifies nullability. 1 = Allows null values. 0 = Does not allow null values.
CASE_SENSITIVE	smallint	Specifies case sensitivity. 1 = All columns of this type are case-sensitive (for collations). 0 = All columns of this type are case-insensitive.
SEARCHABLE	smallint	Column type. 1 = Columns of this type can be used in a WHERE clause. 0 = Columns of this type cannot be used in a WHERE clause.
UNSIGNED_ATTRIBUTE	smallint	Specifies the sign of the data type. 1 = Data type unsigned. 0 = Data type signed.
MONEY	smallint	Specifies the money data type. 1 = money data type. 0 = Not a money data type.
AUTO_INCREMENT	smallint	Specifies autoincrementing. 1 = Autoincrementing. 0 = Not autoincrementing. NULL = Attribute not applicable. An application can insert values into a column that has this attribute, but it cannot update the values in the column. AUTO_INCREMENT is valid only for category data types.
LOCAL_TYPE_NAME	sysname	Localized version of the data source-dependent name of the data type. For example, DECIMAL is DECIMALE in French. NULL is returned if a localized name is not supported by the data source.
MINIMUM_SCALE	smallint	Minimum scale of the data type on the data source. If a data type has a fixed scale, the MINIMUM_SCALE and MAXIMUM_SCALE columns both contain this value. NULL is returned where scale is not applicable.
MAXIMUM_SCALE	smallint	Maximum scale of the data type on the data source. If the maximum scale is not defined separately on the data source, but is instead defined to be the same as the maximum precision, this column contains the same value as the PRECISION column.
SQL_DATA_TYPE	smallint	Value of the SQL data type as it appears in the TYPE field of the descriptor. This column is the same as the DATA_TYPE column, except for the datetime and ANSI interval data types. This field always returns a value.
SQL_DATETIME_SUB	smallint	datetime or ANSI interval subcode if the value of SQL_DATA_TYPE is SQL_DATETIME or SQL_INTERVAL. For data types other than datetime and ANSI interval, this field is NULL.
NUM_PREC_RADIX	int	Number of bits or digits for calculating the maximum number that a column can hold. If the data type is an approximate numeric data type, this column contains the value 2 to indicate a number of bits. For exact numeric types, this column contains the value 10 to indicate a number of decimal digits. Otherwise, this column is NULL. By combining the precision with radix, the application can calculate the maximum number that the column can hold.
INTERVAL_PRECISION	smallint	Value of interval leading precision if data_type is interval; otherwise NULL.
USERTYPE	smallint	usertype value from the systypes table.

Remarks

sp_datatype_info is equivalent to SQLGetTypeInfo in ODBC. The results returned are ordered by DATA_TYPE and then by how closely the data type maps to the corresponding ODBC SQL data type.

Permissions

Execute permissions default to the public role.

Examples

This example retrieves information for the sysname and nvarchar data types by specifying the DATA_TYPE value of -9.

USE master
EXEC sp_datatype_info -9