Other data types

Other data types#

  • timestamp

  • rowversion

  • uniqueidentifier

  • sql_variant

timestamp and rowversion#

Is a data type that exposes automatically generated, unique binary numbers within a database. rowversion is generally used as a mechanism for version-stamping table rows. The storage size is 8 bytes. The rowversion data type is just an incrementing number and does not preserve a date or a time. To record a date or time, use a datetime2 data type. timestamp is an alias of rowversion which has been abandoned in SQL Server.

Example:

CREATE TABLE ExampleTable (Pkey int, VerCol rowversion);

uniqueidentifier#

Is a 16-byte GUID.

Example:

DECLARE @myid uniqueidentifier = NEWID();
SELECT CONVERT(char(255), @myid) AS 'char';

sql_variant#

A data type that stores values of various supported data types.