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You are here: WikiStart/Users/Documentation/1.3/ColumnTypes

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1. Column Types
   1. Text Types
   2. Numeric Types
   3. Binary Types
   4. Temporal (Date/Time) Types
      1. Legacy Temporal Types
2. Customizing Mappings
   1. Specify Column Attributes
   2. Using Custom Platform

Propel Column Types

Here are the Propel column types with some example mappings to native database and PHP types. There are also several ways to customize the mapping between these types.

Column Types

Text Types

Propel Type	Desc	Example Default DB Type (MySQL)	Default PHP Native Type
CHAR	Fixed-lenght character data	CHAR	string
VARCHAR	Variable-lenght character data	VARCHAR	string
LONGVARCHAR	Long variable-length character data	TEXT	string
CLOB	Character LOB (locator object)	LONGTEXT	string

Numeric Types

Propel Type	Desc	Example Default DB Type (MySQL)	Default PHP Native Type
NUMERIC	Numeric data	DECIMAL	string (PHP int is limited)
DECIMAL	Decimal data	DECIMAL	string (PHP int is limited)
TINYINT	Tiny integer	TINYINT	int
SMALLINT	Small integer	SMALLINT	int
INTEGER	Integer	INTEGER	int
BIGINT	Large integer	BIGINT	string (PHP int is limited)
REAL	Real number	REAL	double
FLOAT	Floating point number	FLOAT	double
DOUBLE	Floating point number	DOUBLE	double

Binary Types

Propel Type	Desc	Example Default DB Type (MySQL)	Default PHP Native Type
BINARY	Fixed-length binary data	BLOB	double
VARBINARY	Variable-length binary data	MEDIUMBLOB	double
LONGVARBINARY	Long variable-length binary data	LONGBLOB	double
BLOB	Binary LOB (locator object)	LONGBLOB	string

Temporal (Date/Time) Types

Propel Type	Desc	Example Default DB Type (MySQL)	Default PHP Native Type
DATE	Date (e.g. YYYY-MM-DD)	DATE	DateTime object
TIME	Time (e.g. HH:MM:SS)	TIME	DateTime object
TIMESTAMP	Date + time (e.g. YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS)	TIMESTAMP	DateTime object

Legacy Temporal Types

The following Propel 1.2 types are still supported, but are no longer needed with Propel 1.3.

Propel Type	Desc	Example Default DB Type (MySQL)	Default PHP Native Type
BU_DATE	Pre-/post-epoch date (e.g. 1201-03-02)	DATE	DateTime object
BU_TIMESTAMP	Pre-/post-epoch Date + time (e.g. 1201-03-02 12:33:00)	TIMESTAMP	DateTime object

Customizing Mappings

Specify Column Attributes

You can change the way that Propel maps its own types to native SQL types or to PHP types by overriding the values for a specific column.

For example:

(Overriding PHP type)

<column name="population_served" type="INTEGER" phpType="string"/>

(Overriding SQL type)

<column name="ip_address" type="VARCHAR" sqlType="inet"/>

Using Custom Platform

For overriding the mapping between Propel types and native SQL types, you can create your own Platform class and override the mapping.

For example:

<?php
require_once 'propel/engine/platform/MysqlPlatform .php';
class CustomMysqlPlatform extends MysqlPlatform {

    /**
     * Initializes custom domain mapping.
     */
    protected function initialize()
    {
        parent::initialize();
        $this->setSchemaDomainMapping(new Domain(PropelTypes::NUMERIC, "DECIMAL"));
        $this->setSchemaDomainMapping(new Domain(PropelTypes::LONGVARCHAR, "TEXT"));
        $this->setSchemaDomainMapping(new Domain(PropelTypes::BINARY, "BLOB"));
        $this->setSchemaDomainMapping(new Domain(PropelTypes::VARBINARY, "MEDIUMBLOB"));
        $this->setSchemaDomainMapping(new Domain(PropelTypes::LONGVARBINARY, "LONGBLOB"));
        $this->setSchemaDomainMapping(new Domain(PropelTypes::BLOB, "LONGBLOB"));
        $this->setSchemaDomainMapping(new Domain(PropelTypes::CLOB, "LONGTEXT"));
    }
}

You must then specify that mapping in the build.properties for your project:

propel.platform.class = propel.engine.platform.${propel.database}Platform