Data type precision (CLI) table

The precision of a numeric column or parameter refers to the maximum number of digits that are used by the data type of the column or parameter. The precision of a nonnumeric column or parameter generally refers to the maximum or defined number of characters of the column or parameter.

The following table defines the precision for each SQL data type.

Table 1. Precision
fSqlType	Precision
SQL_CHAR SQL_VARCHAR SQL_CLOB	The defined length of the column or parameter. For example, the precision of a column defined as CHAR(10) is 10.
SQL_LONGVARCHAR	The maximum length of the column or parameter. ^a
SQL_DECIMAL SQL_DECFLOAT SQL_NUMERIC	The defined maximum number of digits. For example, the precision of a column defined as NUMERIC(10,3) is 10 and the precision of a column defined as DECFLOAT(34) is 34.
SQL_SMALLINT ^b	5
SQL_BIGINT	19
SQL_INTEGER ^b	10
SQL_FLOAT ^b	15
SQL_REAL ^b	7
SQL_DOUBLE ^b	15
SQL_BINARY SQL_VARBINARY SQL_BLOB	The defined length of the column or parameter. For example, the precision of a column defined as CHAR(10) FOR BIT DATA, is 10.
SQL_LONGVARBINARY	The maximum length of the column or parameter.
SQL_TYPE_DATE ^b	10 (the number of characters in the yyyy-mm-dd format).
SQL_TYPE_TIME ^b	8 (the number of characters in the hh:mm:ss format).
SQL_TYPE_TIMESTAMP	The number of characters in the "yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss[.ffffffffffff]" format used by the TIMESTAMP data type. For example, if a timestamp does not use seconds or fractional seconds, the precision is 16 (the number of characters in the "yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm" format). If a timestamp uses thousandths of a second, the precision is 23 (the number of characters in the "yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.fff" format).
SQL_TYPE_TIMESTAMP_ WITH_TIMEZONE	The number of characters in the "yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss[.ffffffffffff]" format used by the TIMESTAMP_WITH_TIMEZONE data type. The valid range for the time zone is -12:59~ +14:00. If the timezone_hour is negative, the timezone_minute must be negative or zero. If the timezone_hour is positive, the timezone_minute must be positive or zero. If the timezone_hour is zero, the timezone_minute can have any value in the range -59 through +59.
SQL_GRAPHIC SQL_VARGRAPHIC SQL_DBCLOB	The defined length of the column or parameter. For example, the precision of a column defined as GRAPHIC(10) is 10.
SQL_LONGVARGRAPHIC	The maximum length of the column or parameter.
SQL_WCHAR SQL_WVARCHAR SQL_WLONGVARCHAR	The defined length of the column or parameter. For example, the precision of a column defined as WCHAR(10) is 10.
SQL_XML	0, unless the XML value is an argument to external routines. For external routines, the precision is the defined length, n, of an XML AS CLOB(n) argument.
Note: ^a When defining the precision of a parameter of this data type with `SQLBindParameter()` or `SQLSetParam()`, cbParamDef should be set to the total length of the data, not the precision as defined in this table. ^b The cbColDef argument of `SQLBindParameter()` is ignored for this data type.