The 2011-2014 study design specifies knowledge of these data types:
- Unit 1 - integer, floating point numbers, character, string.
- ITA - text (string), number, date, currency, logic (Boolean)
- SD - integer, floating point number, Boolean, character, string
| DATA TYPE |
DESCRIPTION |
EXAMPLE |
| Integer |
a whole number (no fractional part) |
-32000, 394 |
| Floating point number |
a number with a fractional part |
-3049.3, 394.126 |
| Character |
a single character of text |
E, $, 1, + (the '1' is stored as text and cannot be used arithmetically) |
| String |
any number of text characters |
"string45+&_44" |
| Number |
any type of numeric storage (byte, integer, short/long floating point, currency etc) |
12, -13.5, 192345769656.3423523 |
| Date |
stores a day, month and year combination for any day in history.
It's stored in a special format that lets software interpret the date and do comparisons and calculations with it (e.g. Date + 3 = 3 days after Date. Date2-Date1 gives the number of days between date1 and date2. |
12 March 2011 |
| Logic (Boolean) |
Stores a single value - true or false. Boolean takes very little memory and storage space. |
IsMarried = TRUE
If IsMarried = FALSE Then Happy = TRUE |
|
| Access data types |
Notes |
Filemaker equivalent |
| Text |
Can contain any text, digits or punctuation that can be typed.
Max length: 255 characters. |
Text |
| Memo |
Text, up to 64,000 characters |
| Byte |
numbers from 0 to 255 (no fractions). Uses 1 byte |
Number |
| Integer |
numbers from –32,768 to 32,767 (no fractions). Uses 2 bytes |
| Long Integer |
numbers from –2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 (no fractions). Uses 4 bytes. |
| Decimal |
numbers from -10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to +10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Uses 12 bytes |
| Single (precision) |
Really small and big numbers, positive and negative to 7 decimal places. Uses 4 bytes. |
| Double (precision) |
numbers from –1.79769313486231E308 to –4.94065645841247E–324 for negative values and from 1.79769313486231E308 to 4.94065645841247E–324 for positive values. That's like 300 digits and up to 15 decimal places! Uses 8 bytes. |
| Date/Time |
Dates and times. Uses 8 bytes |
Timestamp |
| Currency |
Use the Currency data type to prevent rounding off during calculations. Accurate to 15 digits to the left of the decimal point and 4 digits to the right. Uses 8 bytes |
Number
(autonumber is formatted as 'auto-enter serial number') |
| AutoNumber |
Unique sequential or random numbers automatically inserted when a record is added. Sometimes called serial number. Uses 4 bytes |
| Yes/No (Boolean) |
Can contain only one of two values: Yes/No, True/False, On/Off etc. Uses only 1 binary bit. |
| OLE Object |
Binary data e.g. pictures, sounds, XLS data files. Can use up to 1 gigabyte. |
Container |
| Hyperlink |
Stores a UNC (e.g. //server1/data) or URL (e.g. http://www.fred.com). Max size 64,000 characters |
No exact equivalent in Filemaker - use text. |
| Filemaker Data Type |
Notes |
Access Equivalent |
| Text |
Up to 2 gigabytes! |
Text or memo |
| Number |
Up to 800 digits, positive or negative, with or without decimal places. |
Byte, Integer, Long Integer, Decimal, Single, Double |
| Date |
Any date between 1 Jan 0001 and 31 Dec 4000 |
Date |
| Time |
A time of day: hour, minute and second |
| Timestamp |
Combined date and time |
| Container |
Any binary data e.g. picture, sound, Word document, up to 4 Gigabytes. |
OLE object |
| Calculation |
A value calculated by a formula using existing data. The answer can be any of text, number, date, time, timestamp or container. |
Not found in Access. Use a query. |
| Summary |
A special field type produced by processing values across many records (e.g. average, maximum, minimum). There is only a single summary value for an entire table, rather than one for each record. |
Not found in Access? Alternative? |
| Global |
A global field is not a different data type as such, but it contains the same value for all records in the database and can be of any type except summary. It's useful for storing values like the login name of the person using the database: it only needs to be stored once, not individually for each record in the database. |
Not found in Access? |
Have you ever wondered why two dominant RDBMS have such stupid names? How does "Access" or "Filemaker" make you think of "database"? Anyhoo...
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