Data Extension Types

Overview

This topic discussed 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 which includes a date and a time

  • date: The same as datetime except that no time component is included.

  • boolean: A datatype than can have either the value true or false

Note

  • The type can be omitted. If so, the default type of string will be used.

  • Booleans can take a number 0 or 1, which will be interpreted as false or true respectively.

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 date time 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).

Note

ISO 8601 allows for times to be expressed to milliseconds precision, such as 2023-07-15T12:30:00.444−07:00. The milliseconds component is optional and will be interpreted as zero if it is not included.

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".

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.