Value types

This documentation is not current - it is for TypeDB 2.x, which is no longer supported. View the documentation for TypeDB 3.x:

Behavior

Primitive values used in TypeQL patterns can be of one of the following value types:

  • boolean — Represented by literals true and false.

  • long — 64-bit signed integer.

  • double — 64-bit floating-point number.

  • string — Variable length UTF-8 encoded string up to 64 kB, enclosed in single or double quotes.

  • datetime — Millisecond-precision timestamp without timezone.

    Permitted date-time formats

    The following formats are permitted for representing datetimes in queries:

    • yyyy-mm-dd

    • yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm

    • yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss

    • yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.fff

    Regardless of the representation in the query, datetimes are always padded to millisecond precision when stored.

An attribute type always has a value type defined in a schema or inherited from a parent type. The value type limits literal values that can be stored in instances of an attribute type. For example, when we define the full-name attribute type to have a value type of string, we can’t create an attribute of the full-name type with a value of a different value type, like boolean or long.

Usage

A Define query and its schema statements is used to define value types for attribute types.

Define query example
define

full-name sub attribute, value string;
review-date sub attribute, value datetime;
size-kb sub attribute, value long;
percentage sub attribute, value double;
validity sub attribute, value boolean;

Data queries (like insert) are validated to prevent type violations, including value types. The type of an attribute defines the value type of its possible values.

Insert query example
insert
$f "Masako Holley" isa full-name;
$d 2023-11-07T03:31:25.262 isa review-date;
$s 100 isa size-kb;
$c 32.5 isa percentage;
$v true isa validity;