Promotion of data types

Data types can be classified into groups of related data types. Within such groups, an order of precedence exists where one data type is considered to precede another data type. This precedence enables the database manager to support the promotion of one data type to another data type that appears later in the precedence ordering. For example, the data type CHAR can be promoted to VARCHAR; INTEGER can be promoted to DOUBLE PRECISION; but CLOB is NOT promotable VARCHAR.

The database manager considers the promotion of data types when:

For each data type, Table 1 shows the precedence list (in order) that the database manager uses to determine the data types to which each data type can be promoted. The table indicates that the best choice is the same data type and not promotion to another data type. Note that the table also shows data types that are considered equivalent during the promotion process. For example, CHARACTER and GRAPHIC are considered to be equivalent data types.

Table 1. Data Type Precedence Table
Data Type Data Type Precedence List (in best-to-worst order)
SMALLINT SMALLINT, INTEGER, BIGINT, decimal, real, double, DECFLOAT
INTEGER INTEGER, BIGINT, decimal, real, double, DECFLOAT
BIGINT BIGINT, decimal, real, double, DECFLOAT
decimal decimal, real, double, DECFLOAT
real real, double, DECFLOAT
double double, DECFLOAT
DECFLOAT DECFLOAT
CHAR or GRAPHIC CHAR or GRAPHIC, VARCHAR or VARGRAPHIC, CLOB or DBCLOB
VARCHAR or VARGRAPHIC VARCHAR or VARGRAPHIC, CLOB or DBCLOB
CLOB or DBCLOB CLOB or DBCLOB
CHAR FOR BIT DATA CHAR, VARCHAR, CLOB, BINARY, VARBINARY, BLOB
VARCHAR FOR BIT DATA VARCHAR, CLOB, VARBINARY, BLOB
BINARY BINARY, VARBINARY, BLOB, CHAR FOR BIT DATA, VARCHAR FOR BIT DATA
VARBINARY VARBINARY, BLOB, VARCHAR FOR BIT DATA
BLOB BLOB
DATE Start of changeDATE, TIMESTAMPEnd of change
TIME TIME
TIMESTAMP TIMESTAMP
DATALINK DATALINK
ROWID ROWID
XML XML
ARRAY ARRAY
udt same udt
Note:
The lower case types above are defined as follows:
decimal
= DECIMAL(p,s) or NUMERIC(p,s)
real
= REAL or FLOAT(n) where n is a specification for single precision floating point
double
= DOUBLE, DOUBLE PRECISION, FLOAT or FLOAT(n) where n is a specification for double precision floating point
udt
= a user-defined type

Shorter and longer form synonyms of the data types listed are considered to be the same as the synonym listed.

Character and graphic strings are only compatible for Unicode data.