Beginning ASP.NET 3.5: In C# and VB

11.4. Creating Your Own Tables

Creating tables in a SQL Server 2005 database is easy using the built-in database tools that are part of VWD. You'll see how you can create your own tables in the database after the next section that briefly introduces you to the data types you have at your disposal in SQL Server 2005 and up.

11.4.1. Data Types in SQL Server

Just as with programming languages like Visual Basic .NET and C#, a SQL Server database uses different data types to store its data. SQL Server 2005 supports almost 30 different data types, most of which look similar to the types used in .NET. The following table lists the most common SQL Server data types together with a description and their .NET counter parts.

SQL 2005 Data Type	Description	.NET Data Type
bit	Stores Boolean values in a 0 / 1 format	System.Boolean
char / nchar	Contains fixed-length text. When you store text shorter than the defined length, the text is padded with spaces. The nchar stores the data in Unicode format, which allows you to store data for many foreign languages.	System.String
datetime	Stores a date and a time.	System.DateTime
decimal	Allows you to store large, fractional numbers.	System.Decimal
float	Allows you to store large, fractional numbers.	System.Double
image	Allows you to store large binary objects such as files. Although the name suggests that you can only use it to store images, this is not the case. You can use it to store any kind of document or other binary object.	System.Byte[]
tinyint	Used to store integer ...