Data Types in CTL2
For basic information about data types used in metadata see Data Types in Metadata.
In any program, you can use some variables. Data types in CTL are the following:
| boolean | long |
| byte | number (double) |
| cbyte | string |
| date | list |
| decimal | map |
| integer | record |
boolean
The boolean data type contains values of logical expressions.
The default value is false.
It can be either true or false.
Its declaration looks like this: boolean
identifier;
Example 66.4. Declaration of boolean variable
boolean b; // declaration boolean b = true; // declaration with assignment
byte
This data type stores binary data of a length
that can be up to Integer.MAX_VALUE as a maximum.
The default value is null.
Its declaration looks like this:
byte identifier;
Example 66.5. Declaration of byte variable
byte b; // declaration of variable with assignment byte b = hex2byte("414243");
cbyte
This data type is a compressed representation of byte data type to reduce runtime memory footprint.
Compressed size of the data can be up to Integer.MAX_VALUE as a maximum.
The default value is null.
Its declaration looks like this:
cbyte identifier;
Example 66.6. Declaration of cbyte variable
cbyte c1; cbyte c2 = hex2byte("61"); // declaration with assignment
date
The date data type contains date and time.
The default value is 1970-01-01 00:00:00 GMT.
Its declaration look like this: date
identifier;
Example 66.7. Declaration of date variable
// declaration of variable date d; // declaration of variable with assignment from function date d = str2date("1600-01-31", "yyyy-MM-dd");
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If you work with |
decimal
The decimal data type serves to store decimal numbers.
Calculations with the decimal data type are performed in fixed point arithmetic.
It makes decimal data type suitable for calculations with money.
The default value is 0.
Its declaration looks like this:
decimal identifier;
By default, any decimal may have up to 32 significant digits.
If you want to have different Length or Scale,
you need to set these properties of decimal field in metadata.
Example 66.8. Usage of decimal data type in CTL2
If you assign 100.0 / 3 to a decimal variable,
its value might for example be 33.333333333333335701809119200333.
As 100.0 is double and 3 is integer,
the both operands were firstly converted to double, then the value has been calculated
and finally the result value has been converted to decimal.
Assigning it to a decimal field (with default Length and Scale,
which are 12 and 2, respectively), it will be converted to 33.33D.
You can cast any float number to the decimal data type
by appending the d letter to its end.
Any numeric data type (integer, long, number/double) can be converted to decimal.
Example 66.9. Declaration of decimal variable
decimal d; decimal d2 = 4.56D; // declaration of variable with assignment
integer
The integer data type can contain integral values.
CTL2 integer can store values
from -2147483648 to 2147483647.
The integer data type can overflow
(i.e. adding 1 to the maximum value returns -2147483648;
similarly, subtracting 1 from the minimum value returns 2147483647)
which may lead to errors and/or incorrect results.
The default value is 0.
Its declaration looks like this: integer
identifier;
![]() | Important |
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The value |
If you append the L letter to the end of any integer number,
you can cast it to the long data type.
Integer can be converted to long,
double or decimal using automatic conversions.
Example 66.10. Declaration of integer variable
integeri1; integer i2 = 1241;
long
long is an integral data type allowing to store greater values
than the integer data type.
CTL2 long can store values from
-9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807.
The long data type can overflow
(i.e. adding 1 to the maximum value returns -92233720368547758088;
similarly, subtracting 1 from the minimum value returns 9223372036854775807)
which may lead to errors and/or incorrect results.
The default value is 0.
Its declaration looks like this: long
identifier;
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The value |
Any integer number can be cast to long data type by appending
the l letter to its end.
Long data type can be converted to the
number/double or decimal
without explicit casting.
Example 66.11. Declaration of long variable
long myLong; long myLong2 = 2141L;
number (double)
The number data type is used for floating point number.
The default value is 0.0.
Its declaration looks like this: number
identifier;
If you need a data type for money amount, we advise using
decimal instead of number (double).
The integer and long data types
can be converted to double using automatic conversions.
If long is being converted to number (double),
lost of precision may occur.
Number(double) can be converted to
decimal without explicit casting.
Example 66.12. Declaration of number (double) variable
double d; double d2 = 1.5e2;
string
This data type serves to store sequences of characters.
The default value is empty string.
The declaration looks like this: string
identifier;
Example 66.13. Declaration of string variable
string s; string s2 = "Hello world!";
list
Each list is a container of one of the following data types:
boolean, byte, date,
decimal, integer, long,
number, string, record.
The list data type is indexed by integers starting from 0.
Its declaration can look like this: string[]
identifier;
List cannot be created as a list of lists or maps.
The default list is an empty list.
Example 66.14. List
integer[] myIntegerList; myIntegerList[5] = 123; // Customer is metadata record name Customer JohnSmith; Customer PeterBrown; Customer[] CompanyCustomers; CompanyCustomers[0] = JohnSmith; CompanyCustomers[1] = PeterBrown;
Assignments:
myStringList[3] = "abc";It means that the specified string is put to the fourth position in the string list. The other values are filled with
nullas follows:myStringListis[null,null,null,"abc"]myList1 = myList2;
It means that both lists reference the same elements.
myList1 = myList1 + myList2;
It adds all elements of
myList2to the end ofmyList1.Both lists must be based on the same primitive data type.
myList1 = null;
It destroys the
myList1.
Be careful when performing list operations (such as append). See Warning.
map
This data type is a container of pairs of a key and a value.
Its declaration looks like this: map[<type of key>, <type of value>]
identifier;
Both the Key and the Value can be of the following primitive data types:
boolean, date, decimal,
integer, long, number and string.
Value can also be of the record,
byte and cbyte type.
Map cannot be created as a map of lists or other maps.
The default map is an empty map.
Example 66.15. Map
map[string, boolean] map1; map1["abc"]=true; // Customer is the name of record Customer JohnSmith; Customer PeterBrown; map[integer, Customer] CompanyCustomersMap; CompanyCustomersMap[JohnSmith.ID] = JohnSmith; CompanyCustomersMap[PeterBrown.ID] = PeterBrown
The assignments are similar to those valid for a list.
record
Record is a container that can contain different primitive data types.
The structure of record is based on metadata. Any metadata item represents a data type.
Declaration of a record looks like this:
<metadata name> identifier;
Metadata names must be unique in a graph. Different metadata must have different names.
For more detailed information about possible expressions and records usage, see Accessing Data Records and Fields.
Record does not have a default value.
It can be indexed by both integer numbers and strings (field names). If indexed by numbers, fields are indexed starting from 0.
![]() | Warning |
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Be careful when a record is pushed|appended|inserted
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![[Note]](../figures/note.png)
![[Important]](../figures/important.png)
![[Warning]](../figures/warning.png)