Data Type Classification | Data Types and Literals | VantageCloud Lake - Data Type Classification - Teradata Vantage

Data types in Teradata can be classified as follows:

Predefined Data Types

System or predefined data types. A collection of traditional data types such as INTEGER, DECIMAL, FLOAT, VARCHAR, CHAR, BYTE, VARBYTE, and so forth. These are scalar data types.

Complex Data Types (CDTs)

Data types provided by Teradata that function similar to UDTs and have the following characteristics:

• CDTs are nonscalar. For most types, relational-style operations are not applicable.
• CDTs have their own individual literal forms.
• CDTs have formats for import and export that are defined by an ANSI standard, a formal specification, or is Teradata specified.
• Teradata may include methods or functions that provide additional functionality for the data types.

CDTs provided by Teradata include the following:

• Period data types
• Geospatial data types such as ST_Geometry, MBR, and MBB
  MBB and MBR are only supported on the Block File System on the primary cluster. They are not available for the Object File System.
• XML
• JSON
• DATASET