Exploring SQL Server data types

- One of your tasks when you're designing your database…is to properly type your attributes,…which otherwise are known as columns,…or actually a better word for that would be the domains.…So the individual column's going to be of a certain type.…There's some basic groupings of data types.…The first is the Character.…Now that allows us, because it's a character,…to enter in any type of a combination.…

You can enter numbers, letters, and punctuation, et cetera.…This is often used for names or addresses,…a description, on and on.…So, what you do is you set up the type as Character,…and then you can come through and set it up…and say how many spaces you want to allow.…Integer. That's for numbers.…And these numbers are integered.…An Integer does not have a fraction.…If you noticed, I used an Integer, int,…for my primary keys,…because I surely do not want a fractional part.…

So those numbers, Integers, are great for things such as…primary keys, or for customer numbers.…Look at Integers for things that can be incremented easily,…