OData Data Types
About Data Types
A little cheat sheet regarding OData's data types:
| OData Type | Version | JS format | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edm.String | V2 & V4 | string | "Test" |
| Edm.Boolean | V2 & V4 | boolean | true |
| Edm.Int16 | V2 & V4 | number | 3 |
| Edm.Int32 | V2 & V4 | number | 222 |
| Edm.Byte | V2 | string | "1" |
| Edm.Byte | V4 | number | 1 |
| Edm.SByte | V2 | string | |
| Edm.SByte | V4 | number | |
| Edm.Int64 | V2 | string | |
| Edm.Int64 | V4 | number | |
| Edm.Single | V2 | string | |
| Edm.Single | V4 | number | |
| Edm.Double | V2 | string | |
| Edm.Double | V4 | number | |
| Edm.Decimal | V2 | string | |
| Edm.Decimal | V4 | number | |
| Edm.Duration | V4 | string | "P12DT12H15M" |
| Edm.Time | V2 | string | "PT12H15M" |
| Edm.TimeOfDay | V4 | string | "12:15:00" |
| Edm.Date | V4 | string | "2022-12-31" |
| Edm.DateTime | V2 | string | "/Date(123...)/" |
| Edm.DateTimeOffset | V2 & V4 | string | "2022-12-31T12:15:00+01:00" |
| Edm.Binary | V2 & V4 | string | |
| Edm.Stream | V4 | --- | streams are accessed differently and thus are out of scope |
V4 Data Types
| OData V4 Type | Description | URL format | URL Example | JSON type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edm.Boolean | boolean value | literal | true false | boolean |
| Edm.String | string value | quoted | 'Some Test' | string |
| Edm.Byte | unsigned 8-bit integer value | literal | 1 | number |
| Edm.SByte | signed 8-bit integer value | literal | -1 | number |
| Edm.Int16 | signed 16-bit integer value | literal | 123 | number |
| Edm.Int32 | signed 32-bit integer value | literal | 123 | number |
| Edm.Int64 | signed 64-bit integer value | literal | 123 | number |
| Edm.Single | floating point number with 7 digits precision | literal | 1.1 | number |
| Edm.Double | floating point number with 15 digits precision | literal | 1.2 | number |
| Edm.Decimal | numeric values with arbitrary precision and scale | literal | 12.22 | number |
| Edm.Guid | 16-byte (128-bit) unique identifier value | literal | ... | string |
| Edm.Duration | duration | literal | PT12H59M10S P1Y PT12.123S | string |
| Edm.TimeOfDay | specific time of day | literal | 12:59:10 12:15 12:15:03.123 | string |
| Edm.Date | specific day | literal | 2022-12-31 | string |
| Edm.DateTimeOffset | specific point in time | literal | 2022-12-31T23:59:59Z 2022-12-31T23:59:59+02:00 | string |
| Edm.Binary | fixed or variable length binary data | base64 encoded string | ||
| Edm.Stream | most filter operations don't work here also exclusive handling | |||
| Edm.Geography.* | ||||
| Edm.Geometry.* |
V2 Data Types
The special thing about V2 OData services is, that we have to differentiate between using OData types in the URL or in JSON, since they are formatted differently:
- URL: values in filter queries ($filter) or function parameters (which are query parameters)
- JSON: values in request or response bodies
The following table lists information about all V2 data types according to the official resources used.
For URL usage, see chapter 6 "Primitive Data Types" of the V2 overview document. This is the most authoritative resource despite it's lack of being a true specification.
For JSON usage, see chapter 4 "Primitive Types" of the document about the V2 JSON format.
| OData V2 Type | Description | URL format | URL example | JSON type | JSON example |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edm.Boolean | boolean value | literal | true | boolean | true |
| Edm.String | string value | quoted | 'test' | string | "test" |
| Edm.Byte | unsigned 8-bit integer value | literal | 1 | string | "1" |
| Edm.SByte | signed 8-bit integer value | literal | -1 | string | "-1" |
| Edm.Int16 | signed 16-bit integer value | literal | 123 | number | 123 |
| Edm.Int32 | signed 32-bit integer value | literal | 123 | number | 123 |
| Edm.Int64 | signed 64-bit integer value | type suffix "L" | 123L | string | "123" |
| Edm.Single | floating point number with 7 digits precision | type suffix "f" | 1.1f | string | "1.1" |
| Edm.Double | floating point number with 15 digits precision | type suffix "d" | 1.2d | string | "1.2" |
| Edm.Decimal | numeric values with arbitrary precision and scale | type suffix "M" or "m" | 12.22M | string | "12.22 |
| Edm.Guid | 16-byte (128-bit) unique identifier value | type prefix "guid" | guid'xxx...' | string | "xxx..." |
| Edm.Time | day time duration representing time of day | type prefix "time" | time'PT12H59M10S' | string | "PT12H59M10S" |
| Edm.DateTime | specific point in time | type prefix "datetime" | datetime'2022-12-31T23:59:59' | string | "/Date(123...)/" |
| Edm.DateTimeOffset | specific point in time | type prefix "datetimeoffset" | datetimeoffset'2022-12-31T23:59:59Z' | string | "2022-12-31T23:59:59+01:00" |
| Edm.Binary | fixed or variable length binary data | type prefix "X" or "binary" | binary'23A' | base64 encoded string | "..." |
Edm.DateTime is quite special in multiple ways:
- URL and JSON representation are completely different
- the JSON representation has quite a unique format
- Edm.DateTime is not really consistent with Edm.DateTimeOffset
Another oddity is Edm.Time, since it is defined as duration (by the way, the static "P" stands for "period"). Now the "spec" states, that it should represent a specific time of day and refers to the "day time duration" as definition.
I think that the definition is flawed for two reasons. First, "day time duration" also allows for specifying a period of days, which doesn't overlap with time of day. Second, a duration might be able to represent a time of day, in the sense that a duration of 6 hours and 12 minutes might also represent "06:12", but both data types usually have different restrictions. Time of day requires the specification of hours and minutes, while duration might specify any of its parts, e.g. only seconds "PT12S".