Data Extension Types

Overview

This topic discusses the types of data that can be used with configured data extensions.

Built-In Data Types

These data types are supported without additional configuration:

• string: A string, or enum-like type with a fixed set of possible values, set with the options property for the type
• int : A 32-bit signed integer
• long: A 64-bit signed integer
• decimal: A floating point number with arbitrary precision, which internally uses base 10 representation and so is appropriate for financial calculations
• datetime: A value that includes a date and a time
• date: The same as datetime except that no time component is included
• boolean: A datatype that can have either the value true or false
• object: An object that can contain multiple properties

Date Types

datetime

The datetime type includes a date and a time, with precision to milliseconds, and includes a time-zone context, which by default will be the policy's time zone. In the API, these are passed as strings using ISO8601 format, such as "2023-07-15T12:30:00−07:00".

Clients may express datetime values with any time zone, but they will be handled according to the time zone for the quote or policy. For example, if the time zone for a policy is America/Los_Angeles but a startTime of 2023-07-15T00:00:00Z (which specifies UTC), then the start time of the policy will be July 15, 2023, at 8AM (which equals midnight in UTC).

date

The date is the same as datetime except that no time or time zone component is included. These are passed by a string such as "2023-04-15".

object

The object type can contain multiple properties. Object properties cannot be defined in tenant configurations.

Custom Data Types

Along with built-in data types, you can use custom data types to manage more complicated or specialized data.

See the Custom Data Types topic for details.

Limitations

• string types are limited to a maximum of 20,000 characters.