Data Types

Data Types

Data types are different formats of data being stored. When setting up a spreadsheet for example the data type for each field can determine what can be done e.g. searching, sorting, calculating. Also it determines the format in which the data is presented e.g. date/time can be shown as 19/02/2015 or 19 February 2015 ect...

Some data types such as date/time will be able to automatically validate the data being entered e.g. the date 31/02/2008 would be automatically rejected or an error message would appear.

Text (string/alphanumeric)

This data type can hold any number, letter, punctuation mark or symbol. It does not matter whether the data is a combination of text, numbers and symbols. 

Telephone number need to be stored as a string data type because most start with a 0, therefore if this was an integer data type the 0 would be discounted. Also you probably wouldn't have the need to add or subtract telephone numbers so there would be no purpose…