Data types

IMS supports data types from SQL.

The smallest unit of data that can be manipulated in SQL is called a value. How values are interpreted depends on the data type of their source. The sources of values are:

Columns
Constants
Expressions
Variables (such as host variables and parameter markers)

The following image shows the built-in data types that IMS supports.

Begin figure description.The built-in data types that are supported by IMS include datetime, string, signed numeric, XML, and boolean. End figure description.

Important:

BOOLEAN, FLOAT, DOUBLE, and fixed-length binary data types are supported only for Java™ application programs.
Fixed-length binary data type is supported for COBOL and .NET applications for retrieval and parameter marker use only.