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Home > Rails - List of datatypes for ActiveRecord

Rails - List of datatypes for ActiveRecord [1]

Submitted by uday [2] on July 22, 2020 - 4:54pm
  • :string - is for small data types such as a title. (Should you choose string or text? [3])
  • :text - is for longer pieces of textual data, such as a paragraph of information
  • :binary - is for storing data such as images, audio, or movies.
  • :boolean - is for storing true or false values.
  • :date - store only the date
  • :datetime - store the date and time into a column.
  • :time - is for time only
  • :timestamp - for storing date and time into a column.(What's the difference between datetime and timestamp? [4])
  • :decimal - is for decimals (example of how to use decimals [5]).
  • :float - is for decimals. Note: Never use float datatype for currency, use decimal. Basically, it stores sign, fraction and exponent to represent a float. Use float when you don't care about precision too much e.g. latitude/longitude values etc. Use decimal always, when precision is required. e.g. numbers that need to be precise and add up correctly (like compounding interest and currency related calculations)
  • :integer - is for whole numbers.
  • :primary_key - unique key that can uniquely identify each row in a table

There's also references used to create associations. But, I'm not sure this is an actual data type [6].

New Rails 4 datatypes available in PostgreSQL:

  • :hstore - storing key/value pairs within a single value (learn more about this new data type [7])
  • :array - an arrangement of numbers or strings in a particular row (learn more about it and see examples [8])
  • :cidr_address - used for IPv4 or IPv6 host addresses
  • :inet_address - used for IPv4 or IPv6 host addresses, same as cidr_address but it also accepts values with nonzero bits to the right of the netmask
  • :mac_address - used for MAC host addresses

Learn more about the address datatypes here [9] and here [10].

Also, here's the official guide on migrations: http://edgeguides.rubyonrails.org/migrations.html [11]

Useful link: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17918117/rails-4-list-of-available-datatypes [12]

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Links
[1] https://uday.net/rails-datatypes-for-ActiveRecord [2] https://uday.net/user/1 [3] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3354330/difference-between-string-and-text-in-rails [4] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/409286/datetime-vs-timestamp [5] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/813287/how-to-store-decimal-values-in-sql-server [6] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6242100/what-is-and-examples-of-using-data-type-references [7] http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.1/static/hstore.html [8] http://reefpoints.dockyard.com/ruby/2012/09/18/rails-4-sneak-peek-postgresql-array-support.html [9] http://reefpoints.dockyard.com/ruby/2012/05/18/rails-4-sneak-peek-expanded-activerecord-support-for-postgresql-datatype.html [10] http://blog.remarkablelabs.com/2012/12/a-love-affair-with-postgresql-rails-4-countdown-to-2013 [11] http://edgeguides.rubyonrails.org/migrations.html [12] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17918117/rails-4-list-of-available-datatypes [13] https://uday.net/taxonomy/term/82