C# Equivalent of SQL Server DataTypes

Question

For the following SQL Server datatypes, what would be the corresponding datatype in C#?

Exact Numerics

bigint
numeric
bit
smallint
decimal
smallmoney
int
tinyint
money

---

Approximate Numerics

float
real

---

Date and Time

date
datetimeoffset
datetime2
smalldatetime
datetime
time

---

Character Strings

char
varchar
text

---

Unicode Character Strings

nchar
nvarchar
ntext

---

Binary Strings

binary
varbinary
image

---

Other Data Types

cursor
timestamp
hierarchyid
uniqueidentifier
sql_variant
xml
table

(source: MSDN)

Answer 1

This is for SQL Server 2005. There are updated versions of the table for SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2014.

SQL Server Data Types and Their .NET Framework Equivalents

The following table lists Microsoft SQL Server data types, their equivalents in the common language runtime (CLR) for SQL Server in the System.Data.SqlTypes namespace, and their native CLR equivalents in the Microsoft .NET Framework.

SQL Server data type          CLR data type (SQL Server)    CLR data type (.NET Framework)  
varbinary                     SqlBytes, SqlBinary           Byte[]  
binary                        SqlBytes, SqlBinary           Byte[]  
varbinary(1), binary(1)       SqlBytes, SqlBinary           byte, Byte[] 
image                         None                          None

varchar                       None                          None
char                          None                          None
nvarchar(1), nchar(1)         SqlChars, SqlString           Char, String, Char[]     
nvarchar                      SqlChars, SqlString           String, Char[] 
nchar                         SqlChars, SqlString           String, Char[] 
text                          None                          None
ntext                         None                          None

uniqueidentifier              SqlGuid                       Guid 
rowversion                    None                          Byte[]  
bit                           SqlBoolean                    Boolean 
tinyint                       SqlByte                       Byte 
smallint                      SqlInt16                      Int16  
int                           SqlInt32                      Int32  
bigint                        SqlInt64                      Int64 

smallmoney                    SqlMoney                      Decimal  
money                         SqlMoney                      Decimal  
numeric                       SqlDecimal                    Decimal  
decimal                       SqlDecimal                    Decimal  
real                          SqlSingle                     Single  
float                         SqlDouble                     Double  

smalldatetime                 SqlDateTime                   DateTime  
datetime                      SqlDateTime                   DateTime 

sql_variant                   None                          Object  
User-defined type(UDT)        None                          user-defined type     
table                         None                          None 
cursor                        None                          None
timestamp                     None                          None 
xml                           SqlXml                        None

Answer 2

SQL Server and .Net Data Type mapping

Answer 3

In case anybody is looking for methods to convert from/to C# and SQL Server formats, here goes a simple implementation:

private readonly string[] SqlServerTypes = { "bigint", "binary", "bit",  "char", "date",     "datetime", "datetime2", "datetimeoffset", "decimal", "filestream", "float",  "geography",                              "geometry",                              "hierarchyid",                              "image",  "int", "money",   "nchar",  "ntext",  "numeric", "nvarchar", "real",   "rowversion", "smalldatetime", "smallint", "smallmoney", "sql_variant", "text",   "time",     "timestamp", "tinyint", "uniqueidentifier", "varbinary", "varchar", "xml" };
private readonly string[] CSharpTypes    = { "long",   "byte[]", "bool", "char", "DateTime", "DateTime", "DateTime",  "DateTimeOffset", "decimal", "byte[]",     "double", "Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.SqlGeography", "Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.SqlGeometry", "Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.SqlHierarchyId", "byte[]", "int", "decimal", "string", "string", "decimal", "string",   "Single", "byte[]",     "DateTime",      "short",    "decimal",    "object",      "string", "TimeSpan", "byte[]",    "byte",    "Guid",             "byte[]",    "string",  "string" };

public string ConvertSqlServerFormatToCSharp(string typeName)
{
    var index = Array.IndexOf(SqlServerTypes, typeName);

    return index > -1
        ? CSharpTypes[index]
        : "object";
}

public string ConvertCSharpFormatToSqlServer(string typeName)
{
    var index = Array.IndexOf(CSharpTypes, typeName);

    return index > -1
        ? SqlServerTypes[index]
        : null;
}

Edit: fixed typo

Answer 4

SQL Server and the .NET Framework are based on different type systems. For example, the .NET Framework Decimal structure has a maximum scale of 28, whereas the SQL Server decimal and numeric data types have a maximum scale of 38. Click Here's a link! for detail

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc716729(v=vs.110).aspx

Answer 5

public static string FromSqlType(string sqlTypeString)
{
    if (! Enum.TryParse(sqlTypeString, out Enums.SQLType typeCode))
    {
        throw new Exception("sql type not found");
    }
    switch (typeCode)
    {
        case Enums.SQLType.varbinary:
        case Enums.SQLType.binary:
        case Enums.SQLType.filestream:
        case Enums.SQLType.image:
        case Enums.SQLType.rowversion:
        case Enums.SQLType.timestamp://?
            return "byte[]";
        case Enums.SQLType.tinyint:
            return "byte";
        case Enums.SQLType.varchar:
        case Enums.SQLType.nvarchar:
        case Enums.SQLType.nchar:
        case Enums.SQLType.text:
        case Enums.SQLType.ntext:
        case Enums.SQLType.xml:
            return "string";
        case Enums.SQLType.@char:
            return "char";
        case Enums.SQLType.bigint:
            return "long";
        case Enums.SQLType.bit:
            return "bool";
        case Enums.SQLType.smalldatetime:
        case Enums.SQLType.datetime:
        case Enums.SQLType.date:
        case Enums.SQLType.datetime2:
            return "DateTime";
        case Enums.SQLType.datetimeoffset:
            return "DateTimeOffset";
        case Enums.SQLType.@decimal:
        case Enums.SQLType.money:
        case Enums.SQLType.numeric:
        case Enums.SQLType.smallmoney:
            return "decimal";
        case Enums.SQLType.@float:
            return "double";
        case Enums.SQLType.@int:
            return "int";
        case Enums.SQLType.real:
            return "Single";
        case Enums.SQLType.smallint:
            return "short";
        case Enums.SQLType.uniqueidentifier:
            return "Guid";
        case Enums.SQLType.sql_variant:
            return "object";
        case Enums.SQLType.time:
            return "TimeSpan";
        default:
            throw new Exception("none equal type");
    }
}

public enum SQLType
{
    varbinary,//(1)
    binary,//(1)
    image,
    varchar,
    @char,
    nvarchar,//(1)
    nchar,//(1)
    text,
    ntext,
    uniqueidentifier,
    rowversion,
    bit,
    tinyint,
    smallint,
    @int,
    bigint,
    smallmoney,
    money,
    numeric,
    @decimal,
    real,
    @float,
    smalldatetime,
    datetime,
    sql_variant,
    table,
    cursor,
    timestamp,
    xml,
    date,
    datetime2,
    datetimeoffset,
    filestream,
    time,
}