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Data Types

XINA has a fixed set of data types which apply to attributes and fields. They are intended to provide consistent behavior across MySQL, Java, and JavaScript data types.

Numeric Types

Type Java MySQL JavaScript Notes
int(1) byte tinyint number integer, -27 to 27-1
int(2) short smallint number integer, -215 to 215-1
int(4) int int number integer, -231 to 231-1
int(8) long bigint number integer, -263 to 263-1 ⚠️
float(4) float float number IEEE 754 4 byte floating point
float(8) double double number IEEE 754 8 byte floating point
boolean boolean tinyint boolean MySQL treats 0 as false, non-zero as true

⚠️ JavaScript number is 8 byte float, so only -253 to 253-1 is stored with exact precision

Character Types

Character data types offer two encoding options:

  • UTF-8 - default encoding, variable length, 1 to 4 bytes per character
  • ASCII - subset of UTF-8, fixed length, 1 byte per character

Two SQL types:

  • char(n) - data stored in the table, fastest search and index, uses fixed amount of space per row (n * max_bytes_per_character)
  • varchar(n) - data stored in the table, fast search and index, uses variable amount of space per row (up to n * max_bytes_per_character)
  • text - data stored outside the table, slower search and index, uses only as much space as needed

Two general types:

  • string - text is normalized before insertion
    • leading and trailing whitespace is trimmed
    • all internal whitespace is reduced to a single space character
  • text - text is inserted as provided

Note, all string operations are case-insensitive by default. This can be overridden with the collate expression by specifying a binary collation.

Type Java MySQL JavaScript Notes
utf8string(n) string char(n) string n up to 128, uses n*4 bytes, normalized
utf8vstring(n) string varchar(n) string n up to 128, uses up to n*4 bytes, normalized
utf8string string mediumtext string up to 224 bytes, normalized
utf8text string mediumtext string up to 224 bytes, not normalized
asciistring(n) string char(n) string n up to 256, uses n bytes, normalized
asciivstring(n) string varchar(n) string n up to 256, uses up to n bytes, normalized
asciistring string mediumtext string up to 224 bytes, normalized
asciitext string mediumtext string up to 224 bytes, not normalized

Temporal Types

Temporal data types store time data. There are two categories of temporal types:

  • instants - identify specific moment in time, independent of time zone
    • stored numerically in the database in milliseconds
    • datetime and date use Unix epoch
    • datetime and date comparable in database
    • date + time = datetime
    • typically displayed in local time zone in front-end applications
  • timestamps - identify specific formatted time without time zone consideration (thus local)
    • stored as ISO 8601 formatted string in database
    • localdate and localdatetime comparable in database
    • CONCAT(localdate, 'T', localtime) = localdatetime
Type Java MySQL JavaScript Notes
datetime DateTime bigint date instant with millisecond precision, as Unix time
date XDate bigint date instant at start of date UTC, as Unix time
time LocalTime int number length of time up to 23:59:59.999, as millisecond count
localdatetime LocalDateTime char(24) string full timestamp without timezone, stored as string
localdate LocalDate char(10) string date without timezone, stored as string
localtime LocalTime char(12) string length of time up to 23:59:59.999, as string

JSON Types

JSON data types store JSON data directly in the database.

Type Java MySQL JavaScript
json JsonValue json *
jsonarray JsonArray json array
jsonobject JsonObject json object
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