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Ocient® supports many common data types such as INT, SHORT, DATE, and TIMESTAMP, as well as complex types like ARRAY and TUPLE, and specialized data types like POINT and LINESTRING used for geospatial analysis. For detailed information about supported data types, refer to the Data Types page. You can use all these data types as types for columns in tables and for queries. Use scalar data conversion functions in queries to manipulate data types. For details, see Scalar Data Conversion Functions. You can execute various functions and aggregates depending on the data type. For example, you can sum, average, or process numeric types with other statistical functions, and you can trim, manipulate, or aggregate character types into a single string. Basic data types such as INT, BOOLEAN, and VARCHAR behave similarly to other databases. You can query and inspect complex types, such as ARRAYS and TUPLES, like any other column, and also have special operators used to interrogate the sets of data.

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Numeric and Boolean Data Types

Numeric and Boolean types represent data with different precision and scale. Integer values are supported from a one-byte signed integer up to an eight-byte signed integer. All integers are signed in Ocient. Floating point values are possible as either single or double precision, and exact decimal precision is available with the Decimal type. The Boolean type is used to represent true or false in the database. All numeric types are fixed-length data types.
  • BIGINT — eight-byte signed integer
  • INT — four-byte signed integer
  • SMALLINT — two-byte signed integer
  • TINYINT — one-byte signed integer (alias: BYTE)
  • FLOAT — four-byte single precision floating-point number (alias: REAL or SINGLE PRECISION)
  • DOUBLE — eight-byte double precision floating-point number (alias: DOUBLE PRECISION)
  • DECIMAL(P,S) — Exact numerical decimal value with precision P and Scale S
  • BOOLEAN — one-byte logical Boolean representing true or false
Learn more about working with numeric data types in the following sections:

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Character and Binary Types

Character Types represent text and character data. Both fixed-length and variable-length options are available. Fixed-length provides some benefits to the database storage and query engine when applicable, but indexes are available that target variable-length character columns. Binary types represent byte array data.
  • CHAR(N) — Variable-length character string with length N (alias: CHARACTER(N))
  • VARCHAR(N) — Variable-length character string with a maximum length of N
  • BINARY(N) — Fixed-length binary array with length N (alias: HASH(N))
  • VARBINARY(N) — Variable-length binary array with maximum length N (alias: HASH(N))
The database ignores length of N for CHAR, VARCHAR, and VARBINARY. The database uses N for SQL conformance only.
Learn more about working with character and binary data types in these sections:

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Date and Time Types

Date and Time types represent time in Ocient. Timestamps take on special capabilities when you define them as a TimeKey® on a table. For more details, see TimeKeys and Clustering Keys. Ocient provides many functions to operate on time series data.
  • DATE — four-byte Calendar date representing year, month, day
  • TIMESTAMP — eight-byte date and time with nanosecond precision in UTC time zone
  • TIME — eight-byte time of day in nanoseconds
Learn more about working with date and time data types in the following sections:

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Networking and Unique Identifier Types

Ocient provides data types for processing of IP addresses and UUIDs that allow schemas to leverage improved searching and analysis of both types as well as easier loading of structured data into these types. The IP type is designed for IP V6 and can handle IP V4 addresses as well.
  • IPV4 — four-byte Internet Protocol V4 address
  • IP — 16-byte Internet Protocol V6 address
  • UUID — 16-byte universally unique identifier (e.g., 01234567-89ab-cdef-1357-0123456789ab)

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Geospatial Data Types

Geospatial analysis is a rich capability in Ocient enabled by special data types and functions. The foundation rests on POINT, LINESTRING, and POLYGON types that represent respective points and shapes on the Earth. From these types and their composites, Ocient can perform many proximity, intersection, and computational geospatial analytics at an incredible scale.
  • POINT — Geometric point in two dimensions.
  • LINESTRING — Geometric type composed of N POINTS.
  • POLYGON — Geometric type composed of N closed LINESTRINGS.
Learn more about working with geospatial types in the Geospatial Functions section.

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Complex Types

Arrays and Tuples are SQL container types that store other SQL types. These types allow you to represent complex schemas as a column in a table instead of separate, normalized tables. In some situations, using Arrays, Tuples, or Arrays of Tuples can lead to significant performance benefits. Use the Matrix type to store one or two-dimensional arrays of fixed-size data types for matrix computations.
  • ARRAY — An array of any supported type other than ARRAY.
  • MATRIX — A one or two-dimensional mathematical matrix used for matrix calculations.
  • TUPLE — A tuple of elements of different types. Tuple is similar to a structure in other programming languages. You can include Tuples in arrays.
Learn more about complex data types in the following sections: Data Query Language (DQL) Statement Reference SQL Reference
Last modified on October 6, 2026