Datatypes

Learn about SAP Replication Server supported SAP datatypes.

Table 1: SAP Replication Server-Supported Datatypes
Datatype class	Datatypes
Exact numeric (integer)	`<bigint>`, `<int>`, `<smallint>`, `<tinyint>`, `<unsigned bigint>`, `<unsigned int>`, `<unsigned smallint>`, `<unsigned tinyint>`, `<rs_address>`
Exact numeric (decimal)	`<decimal>`, `<numeric>`, `<identity>`
Approximate numeric (floating point)	`<float>`, `<real>`
Character	`<char(n)>`, `<varchar(n)>`, `<text>`, `<opaque>`
Money	`<money>`, `<smallmoney>`
Date/time	`<datetime>`, `<smalldatetime>`, `<date>`, `<time>`, `<timestamp>`, `<bigdatetime>`, `<bigtime>`
Binary	`<binary(n)>`, `<varbinary(n)>`,`< image>`, `<rawobject>`, `<rawobject in row>`
Bit	`<bit>`
Unicode	`<unichar(n)>`, `<univarchar(n)>`, `<unitext>`
Java	`<rawobject>`, `<rawobject in row>`
Datatype definitions	See “Datatype Definitions”.

RCL indirectly supports these SAP datatypes:

<double precision>
<nchar>, <nvarchar>

These datatypes are not supported:

The optional precision argument of the <float> datatype
The optional precision and scale arguments of the exact decimal datatypes

Data in columns with unsupported datatypes can be replicated if you create the replication definition using one of the supported datatypes shown in Replication Server-supported datatypes table.. For example, to replicate a <double precision> column, define the column as <float >in the replication definition. To replicate a column with a user-defined datatype, use the underlying datatype in the replication definition.

To replicate data stored in columns of type <nchar> or <nvarchar> in the SAP ASE, use the <char> and <varchar> SAP Replication Server datatypes, respectively. The only difference is that the length units in <nchar> and <nvarchar> refer to the number of characters in the native character set of the SAP ASE, and the length units in <char> and <varchar> always refer to bytes.

To get the length of the corresponding SAP Replication Server <char> and <varchar> datatypes, multiply the declared length of the <nchar> or <nvarchar> datatype by the value of the SAP ASE global variable <@@ncharsize>.

For example, if <@@ncharsize> is 1 (true for all single-byte character sets like iso_1, cp850, cp437, roman8, and mac), there is a one-to-one correspondence and the declared lengths are the same. If <@@ncharsize> is 2 (true for some multibyte character sets like Shift-JIS and EUC-JIS), multiply the declared length of the <nchar> and <nvarchar> datatypes by 2 and declare them as <char> and <varchar> in the replication definition.

The following sections describe the supported datatypes. For more information about SAP ASE datatypes, see the Adaptive Server Enterprise Reference Manual.

SAP Replication Server supports a set of datatype definitions for non-SAP data servers that lets you replicate column values of one datatype to a column of a different datatype in the replicate database. See the Administration Guide Volume 1 for more information about heterogeneous datatype support (HDS).