Defining Columns - Advanced SQL Engine - Teradata Database

The column definition clause of the CREATE TABLE statement defines the table column elements.

A name and a data type must be specified for each column defined for a table.

Here is an example that creates a table called employee with three columns:

   CREATE TABLE employee
     (deptno INTEGER
     ,name CHARACTER(23)
     ,hiredate DATE);

Each column can be further defined with one or more optional attribute definitions. The following attributes are also elements of the SQL column definition clause:

• Data type attribute declaration, such as NOT NULL, FORMAT, TITLE, and CHARACTER SET
• COMPRESS column storage attributes clause
• DEFAULT and WITH DEFAULT default value control clauses
• PRIMARY KEY, UNIQUE, REFERENCES, and CHECK column constraint attributes clauses

Here is an example that defines attributes for the columns in the employee table:

   CREATE TABLE employee
     (deptno INTEGER NOT NULL
     ,name CHARACTER(23) CHARACTER SET LATIN
     ,hiredate DATE DEFAULT CURRENT_DATE);