Portable data types are those that you can translate into any database vendor's set of physical data types, without loss of meaning, content, or value. The most common portable data types are the following:
- Text (fixed length, variable length, large length)
- Numeric (signed integer, unsigned integer, autocounter, floating point, decimal, money)
- Raw Data (fixed, variable, large length, picture, OLE object)
- Temporal (auto timestamp, date, time, date & time)
- Logical (true or false, yes or no)
- Other (row id, object id, unknown)