Changing the Default Formats - Teradata Vantage - Analytics Database

SQL Data Types and Literals
Deployment
VantageCloud
VantageCore
Edition
VMware
Enterprise
IntelliFlex
Product
Analytics Database
Teradata Vantage
Release Number
17.20
Published
June 2022
ft:locale
en-US
ft:lastEdition
2025-11-06
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dita:id
exs1472253032394
lifecycle
latest
Product Category
Teradata Vantage™

You can change the default formats that Teradata SQL uses for the following data types:

  • BIGINT
  • BYTEINT
  • DATE
  • DECIMAL/NUMERIC
  • FLOAT/REAL/DOUBLE PRECISION
  • INTEGER
  • NUMBER
  • SMALLINT
  • TIME and TIME WITH TIME ZONE
  • TIMESTAMP and TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE

To change the data type default formats, you must create a specification for data formatting (SDF) file, and then use the tdlocaledef utility. For more information, see Teradata Vantage™ - Database Utilities, B035-1102.

Vantage uses the changes when it assigns formats to columns of new tables where the CREATE TABLE statement does not explicitly specify the column format. Columns of tables that were created prior to changing the default formats continue to use the format that Vantage assigned to the column at the time the table was created.

To view the settings of the preceding data type default formats for the current session, use the HELP SESSION statement. For more information, see HELP and SHOW in Teradata Vantage™ - SQL Data Definition Language Syntax and Examples, B035-1144.