# Data types
<a name="s_Supported_data_types"></a>

Each value that AWS Clean Rooms Spark SQL stores or retrieves has a data type with a fixed set of associated properties. Data types are declared when tables are created. A data type constrains the set of values that a column or argument can contain. 

The following table lists the data types that you can use in AWS Clean Rooms Spark SQL. 


| Data type name | Data type | Aliases  | Description  | 
| --- | --- | --- | --- | 
| ARRAY | [Nested type](s_Nested-data-type.md) | Not applicable | Array nested data type | 
| BIGINT  | [Numeric types](Numeric_types.md) | Not applicable | Signed eight-byte integer  | 
| BINARY | [Binary type](binary-data-type.md) | Not applicable | Byte sequence values | 
| BOOLEAN  | [Boolean type](s_Boolean_type.md) | BOOL  | Logical Boolean (true/false)  | 
| BYTE | [Numeric types](Numeric_types.md) | Not applicable | 1-byte signed integer numbers, from -128 to 127 | 
| CHAR  | [Character types](Character_types.md) | CHARACTER | Fixed-length character string  | 
| DATE  | [Datetime types](Datetime_types.md) | Not applicable  | Calendar date (year, month, day)  | 
| DECIMAL  | [Numeric types](Numeric_types.md) | NUMERIC  | Exact numeric of selectable precision  | 
| FLOAT | [Numeric types](Numeric_types.md) | FLOAT8, DOUBLE PRECISION | Double precision floating-point number  | 
| INTEGER  | [Numeric types](Numeric_types.md) | INT | Signed four-byte integer  | 
| INTERVAL | [Datetime types](Datetime_types.md) | Not applicable  | Time duration in day to time order or year to month order | 
| LONG | [Numeric types](Numeric_types.md) | Not applicable | 8-byte signed integer numbers | 
| MAP | [Nested type](s_Nested-data-type.md) | Not applicable | Map nested data type | 
| REAL  | [Numeric types](Numeric_types.md) | FLOAT4  | Single precision floating-point number  | 
| SHORT | [Numeric types](Numeric_types.md) | Not applicable | 2-byte signed integer numbers. | 
| SMALLINT  | [Numeric types](Numeric_types.md) | Not applicable | Signed two-byte integer  | 
| STRUCT | [Nested type](s_Nested-data-type.md) | Not applicable | Struct nested data type | 
| TIMESTAMP\_LTZ | [Datetime types](Datetime_types.md) | Not applicable | Time of day with local time zone | 
| TIMESTAMP\_NTZ | [Datetime types](Datetime_types.md) | Not applicable | Time of day without time zone | 
| TINYINT | [Numeric types](Numeric_types.md) | Not applicable | 1-byte signed integer numbers, from -128 to 127 | 
| VARCHAR  | [Character types](Character_types.md) | CHARACTER VARYING | Variable-length character string with a user-defined limit  | 

**Note**  
The ARRAY, STRUCT, and MAP nested data types are currently only enabled for the custom analysis rule. For more information, see [Nested type](s_Nested-data-type.md).

## Multibyte characters
<a name="c_Supported_data_types-multi-byte-characters"></a>

The VARCHAR data type supports UTF-8 multibyte characters up to a maximum of four bytes. Five-byte or longer characters are not supported. To calculate the size of a VARCHAR column that contains multibyte characters, multiply the number of characters by the number of bytes per character. For example, if a string has four Chinese characters, and each character is three bytes long, then you will need a VARCHAR(12) column to store the string.

The VARCHAR data type doesn't support the following invalid UTF-8 codepoints: 

`0xD800 – 0xDFFF` (Byte sequences: `ED A0 80` – `ED BF BF`)

The CHAR data type doesn't support multibyte characters.