MySQL

MySQL Column Types

Each table in a database is made up of one or more columns. When you create a table using a CREATE TABLE statement, you specify a type for each column. A column type is more specific than a data type, which is just a general category such as "number" or "string." A column type precisely characterizes the kind of values a given table column may contain, such as SMALLINT or VARCHAR(32).

MySQL's column types are the means by which you describe what kinds of values a table's columns contain, which in turn determines how MySQL treats those values. For example, if you have numeric values, you can store them using a numeric or a string column type, but MySQL will treat the values somewhat differently depending on how you store them. ...