Integer types (smallint, integer, bigint) in PostgreSQL - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Working with Integer Types in PostgreSQL

📖 Scenario: You are creating a simple database table to store information about employees in a company. Each employee has an ID number, their age, and their salary in whole dollars.Different integer types can store different ranges of numbers. You will practice creating a table using smallint, integer, and bigint types to store these values efficiently.

🎯 Goal: Create a PostgreSQL table named employees with three columns: employee_id as smallint, age as integer, and salary as bigint. This will help you understand how to use different integer types for different data sizes.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a table named employees

Add a column employee_id with type smallint

Add a column age with type integer

Add a column salary with type bigint

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Companies often store employee information in databases. Choosing the right integer type helps save space and improves performance.

💼 Career

Database administrators and developers must understand data types to design efficient and reliable database schemas.

1

Create the employees table with employee_id as smallint

Write a SQL statement to create a table called employees with one column named employee_id of type smallint.

PostgreSQL

CREATE TABLE employees (
    employee_id smallint
);
-- Your code here

Need a hint?

Use CREATE TABLE employees (employee_id smallint); to create the table with the correct column and type.

2

Add the age column with type integer

Modify the employees table creation SQL to add a second column named age with type integer after employee_id.

PostgreSQL

CREATE TABLE employees (
    employee_id smallint,
    age integer
);
-- Your code here

Need a hint?

Add age integer as a new column separated by a comma.

3

Add the salary column with type bigint

Extend the employees table creation SQL to include a third column named salary with type bigint after age.

PostgreSQL

CREATE TABLE employees (
    employee_id smallint,
    age integer,
    salary bigint
);
-- Your code here

Need a hint?

Add salary bigint as the last column with a comma before it.

4

Complete the table creation with all three columns

Ensure the full SQL statement creates the employees table with columns employee_id as smallint, age as integer, and salary as bigint.

PostgreSQL

CREATE TABLE employees (
    employee_id smallint,
    age integer,
    salary bigint
);
-- Your code here

Need a hint?

Check that all three columns and their types are included in the table creation statement.