---
title: SQL data types
description: The InfluxDB SQL implementation supports a number of data types including 64-bit integers, double-precision floating point numbers, strings, and more.
url: https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb3/cloud-serverless/reference/sql/data-types/
estimated_tokens: 2060
publisher: InfluxData
canonical: https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb3/cloud-serverless/reference/sql/data-types/
date: '2025-04-03T12:43:17-06:00'
lastmod: '2025-04-03T12:43:17-06:00'
---

InfluxDB Cloud Serverless uses the [Apache Arrow DataFusion](https://arrow.apache.org/datafusion/)implementation of SQL.
Data types define the type of values that can be stored in table columns.
In InfluxDB’s SQL implementation, a **measurement** is structured as a table,
and **tags**, **fields** and **timestamps** are exposed as columns.

## SQL and Arrow data types

In SQL, each column, expression, and parameter has a data type.
A data type is an attribute that specifies the type of data that the object can hold.
DataFusion uses the [Arrow](https://arrow.apache.org/) type system for query execution.
All SQL types are mapped to [Arrow data types](https://docs.rs/arrow/latest/arrow/datatypes/enum.DataType.html).

Both SQL and Arrow data types play an important role in how data is operated on
during query execution and returned in query results.

> [!Note]
> When performing casting operations, cast to the SQL data type unless you use[`arrow_cast()`](/influxdb3/cloud-serverless/reference/sql/functions/misc/#arrow_cast)to cast to a specific Arrow type.
> Names and identifiers in SQL are *case-insensitive* by default. For example:
> ```
> SELECT
> '99'::BIGINT,
> '2019-09-18T00:00:00Z'::timestamp
> ```

```sql
SELECT
  '99'::BIGINT,
  '2019-09-18T00:00:00Z'::timestamp
```

* [String types](#string-types)
* [Numeric types](#numeric-types)
  * [Integers](#integers)
  * [Unsigned integers](#unsigned-integers)
  * [Floats](#floats)

* [Date and time data types](#date-and-time-data-types)
  * [Timestamp](#timestamp)
  * [Interval](#interval)

* [Boolean types](#boolean-types)
* [Unsupported SQL types](#unsupported-sql-types)
* [Data types compatible with parameters](#data-types-compatible-with-parameters)

## String types

|SQL data type|Arrow data type|           Description           |
|-------------|---------------|---------------------------------|
|   STRING    |     UTF8      |Character string, variable-length|
|    CHAR     |     UTF8      | Character string, fixed-length  |
|   VARCHAR   |     UTF8      |Character string, variable-length|
|    TEXT     |     UTF8      |    Variable unlimited length    |

##### Example string literals

```sql
'abcdefghijk'
'time'
'h2o_temperature'
```

## Numeric types

The following numeric types are supported:

| SQL data type |Arrow data type|                 Description                  |
|---------------|---------------|----------------------------------------------|
|    BIGINT     |     INT64     |            64-bit signed integer             |
|BIGINT UNSIGNED|    UINT64     |           64-bit unsigned integer            |
|    DOUBLE     |    FLOAT64    |  64-bit floating-point number (\~15 digits)  |
|     FLOAT     |    FLOAT32    |  32-bit floating-point number (\~7 digits)   |
|     REAL      |    FLOAT32    |32-bit floating-point number (alias for FLOAT)|

### Integers

InfluxDB SQL supports the 64-bit signed integers:

**Minimum signed integer**: `-9223372036854775808`**Maximum signed integer**: `9223372036854775807`

##### Example integer literals

```sql
234
-446
5
```

### Unsigned integers

InfluxDB SQL supports the 64-bit unsigned integers:

**Minimum unsigned integer**: `0`**Maximum unsigned integer**: `18446744073709551615`

##### Example unsigned integer literals

Unsigned integer literals are comprised of an integer cast to the `BIGINT UNSIGNED` type:

```sql
234::BIGINT UNSIGNED
458374893::BIGINT UNSIGNED
5::BIGINT UNSIGNED
```

### Floats

InfluxDB SQL supports both 32-bit (single precision) and 64-bit (double precision) floating-point values.

| Type |Precision|Significant Digits|                        Use Case                         |
|------|---------|------------------|---------------------------------------------------------|
|FLOAT | 32-bit  |    \~7 digits    |Memory-efficient storage when full precision isn’t needed|
|DOUBLE| 64-bit  |  \~15-16 digits  |           Default for most numeric operations           |

> [!Note]
> InfluxDB stores float field values as 64-bit (FLOAT64) internally.
> Casting to FLOAT (32-bit) may lose precision for values with more than \~7 significant digits.
> Unlike PostgreSQL where FLOAT defaults to double precision, InfluxDB SQL treats FLOAT as single precision (32-bit).

##### Example float literals

Float literals are stored as 64-bit double precision:

```sql
23.8
-446.89
5.00
0.033
```

##### Example float casting

```sql
-- Cast to 32-bit float (may lose precision)
SELECT 3.141592653589793::FLOAT;
-- Returns: 3.1415927 (truncated to ~7 digits)

-- Cast to 64-bit double (preserves precision)
SELECT 3.141592653589793::DOUBLE;
-- Returns: 3.141592653589793
```

## Date and time data types

InfluxDB SQL supports the following DATE/TIME data types:

|SQL data type|       Arrow data type        |                 Description                 |
|-------------|------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|
|  TIMESTAMP  | Timestamp(Nanosecond, None)  |Nanosecond timestamp with no time zone offset|
|  INTERVAL   |Interval(IntervalMonthDayNano)| Interval of time with a specified duration  |

### Timestamp

A time type is a single point in time using nanosecond precision.

The following date and time formats are supported:

```sql
YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00.000Z
YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00.000-00:00
YYYY-MM-DD 00:00:00.000-00:00
YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00Z
YYYY-MM-DD 00:00:00.000
YYYY-MM-DD 00:00:00
```

##### Example timestamp literals

```sql
'2023-01-02T03:04:06.000Z'
'2023-01-02T03:04:06.000-00:00'
'2023-01-02 03:04:06.000-00:00'
'2023-01-02T03:04:06Z'
'2023-01-02 03:04:06.000'
'2023-01-02 03:04:06'
```

### Interval

The INTERVAL data type can be used with the following precision:

* nanosecond
* microsecond
* millisecond
* second
* minute
* hour
* day
* week
* month
* year
* century

##### Example interval literals

```sql
INTERVAL '10 minutes'
INTERVAL '1 year'
INTERVAL '2 days 1 hour 31 minutes'
```

## Boolean types

Booleans store TRUE or FALSE values.

|SQL data type|Arrow data type|    Description     |
|-------------|---------------|--------------------|
|   BOOLEAN   |    Boolean    |True or false values|

##### Example boolean literals

```sql
true
TRUE
false
FALSE
```

## Unsupported SQL types

The following SQL types are not currently supported:

* UUID
* BLOB
* CLOB
* BINARY
* VARBINARY
* REGCLASS
* NVARCHAR
* CUSTOM
* ARRAY
* ENUM
* SET
* DATETIME
* BYTEA

## Data types compatible with parameters

For information about data types that can be substituted by parameters,
see how to [use parameterized queries with SQL](/influxdb3/cloud-serverless/query-data/sql/parameterized-queries/).

#### Related

* [Cast values to different types](/influxdb3/cloud-serverless/query-data/sql/cast-types/)
| SQL data type | Arrow data type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| SQL data type | Arrow data type | Description |
| STRING | UTF8 | Character string, variable-length |
| CHAR | UTF8 | Character string, fixed-length |
| VARCHAR | UTF8 | Character string, variable-length |
| TEXT | UTF8 | Variable unlimited length |

| SQL data type | Arrow data type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| SQL data type | Arrow data type | Description |
| BIGINT | INT64 | 64-bit signed integer |
| BIGINT UNSIGNED | UINT64 | 64-bit unsigned integer |
| DOUBLE | FLOAT64 | 64-bit floating-point number (~15 digits) |
| FLOAT | FLOAT32 | 32-bit floating-point number (~7 digits) |
| REAL | FLOAT32 | 32-bit floating-point number (alias for FLOAT) |

| Type | Precision | Significant Digits | Use Case |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Type | Precision | Significant Digits | Use Case |
| FLOAT | 32-bit | ~7 digits | Memory-efficient storage when full precision isn’t needed |
| DOUBLE | 64-bit | ~15-16 digits | Default for most numeric operations |

| SQL data type | Arrow data type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| SQL data type | Arrow data type | Description |
| TIMESTAMP | Timestamp(Nanosecond, None) | Nanosecond timestamp with no time zone offset |
| INTERVAL | Interval(IntervalMonthDayNano) | Interval of time with a specified duration |

| SQL data type | Arrow data type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| SQL data type | Arrow data type | Description |
| BOOLEAN | Boolean | True or false values |