Default PHP Data Types

When retrieving data from the server, the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server converts data to a default PHP data type if no PHP data type has been specified by the user.

When data is returned using the PDO_SQLSRV driver, the data type will either be int or string.

The remainder of this topic discusses default data types using the SQLSRV driver.

The following table lists the SQL Server data type (the data type being retrieved from the server), the default PHP data type (the data type to which data is converted), and the default encoding for streams and strings. For details about how to specify data types when retrieving data from the server, see How to: Specify PHP Data Types.

SQL Server Type	Default PHP Type	Default Encoding
bigint	String	8-bit character¹
binary	Stream²	Binary³
bit	Integer	8-bit character¹
char	String	8-bit character¹
date⁸	Datetime	Not applicable
datetime⁸	Datetime	Not applicable
datetime2⁸	Datetime	Not applicable
datetimeoffset⁸	Datetime	Not applicable
decimal	String	8-bit character¹
float	Float	8-bit character¹
geography	STREAM	Binary³
geometry	STREAM	Binary³
image⁴	Stream²	Binary³
int	Integer	8-bit character¹
money	String	8-bit character¹
nchar	String	8-bit character¹
numeric	String	8-bit character¹
nvarchar	String	8-bit character¹
nvarchar(MAX)	Stream²	8-bit character¹
ntext⁵	Stream²	8-bit character¹
real	Float	8-bit character¹
smalldatetime	Datetime	8-bit character¹
smallint	Integer	8-bit character¹
smallmoney	String	8-bit character¹
sql_variant	String	8-bit character¹
text⁶	Stream²	8-bit character¹
time⁸	Datetime	Not applicable
timestamp	String	8-bit character¹
tinyint	Integer	8-bit character¹
UDT	Stream²	Binary³
uniqueidentifier	String⁷	8-bit character¹
varbinary	Stream²	Binary³
varbinary(MAX)	Stream²	Binary³
varchar	String	8-bit character¹
varchar(MAX)	Stream²	8-bit character¹
variant	Not supported	Not supported
xml	Stream²	8-bit character¹

Data is returned in 8-bit characters as specified in the code page of the Windows locale set on the system. Any multi-byte characters or characters that do not map into this code page are substituted with a single byte question mark (?) character.
If sqlsrv_fetch_array or sqlsrv_fetch_object is used to retrieve data that has a default PHP type of Stream, the data will be returned as a string with the same encoding as the stream. For example, if a SQL Server binary type is retrieved by using sqlsrv_fetch_array, the default return type will be a binary string.
Data is returned as a raw byte stream from the server without performing encoding or translation.
This is a legacy type that maps to the varbinary(max) type.
This is a legacy type that maps to the nvarchar(max) type.
This is a legacy type that maps to the varchar(max) type.
UNIQUEIDENTIFIERs are GUIDs represented by the following regular expression:

[0-9a-fA-F]{8}-[0-9a-fA-F]{4}-[0-9a-fA-f]{4}-[0-9a-fA-f]{4}-[0-9a-fA-F]{12}
Date and time types can be retrieved as strings. For more information, see How to: Retrieve Date and Time Type as Strings Using the SQLSRV Driver.

Data types that are new in SQL Server 2008 and that exist outside of columns (such as table-valued parameters) are not supported in the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server. The table below summarizes the PHP support for new SQL Server 2008 features.

Feature	PHP Support
Table-valued parameter	No
Sparse columns	Partial
Null-bit compression	Yes
Large CLR user-defined types (UDTs)	Yes
Service principal name	No
MERGE	Yes
FILESTREAM	Partial

Partial type support means that you cannot programmatically query for the type of the column.

Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server

Other New SQL Server 2008 Data Types and Features

See Also

Reference

Concepts

Other Resources

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