SQLite column types

Based on official SQLite docs (opens in a new tab), each value stored in an SQLite database (or manipulated by the database engine) has one of the following storage classes NULL, INTEGER, REAL, TEXT and BLOB

We have native support for all of them, yet if that's not enough for you - feel free to create custom types.

Integer

A signed integer, stored in 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, or 8 bytes depending on the magnitude of the value

import { integer, sqliteTable } from "drizzle-orm/sqlite-core";
 
const table = sqliteTable('table', {
	id: integer('id')
});
 
// you can customize integer mode to be number, boolean, timestamp, timestamp_ms
integer('id', { mode: 'number' })
integer('id', { mode: 'boolean' })
integer('id', { mode: 'timestamp_ms' })
integer('id', { mode: 'timestamp' }) // Date

CREATE TABLE `table` (
	`id` integer
);

// to make integer primary key auto increment
integer('id', { mode: 'number' }).primaryKey({ autoIncrement: true })

CREATE TABLE `table` (
	`id` integer PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT NOT NULL
);

Real

A floating point value, stored as an 8-byte IEEE floating point number.

import { real, sqliteTable } from "drizzle-orm/sqlite-core";
 
const table = sqliteTable('table', {
	real: real('real')
});

CREATE TABLE `table` (
	`real` real
);

Text

A text string, stored using the database encoding (UTF-8, UTF-16BE or UTF-16LE).
You can define { enum: ["value1", "value2"] } config to infer insert and select types, it won't check runtime values

import { text, sqliteTable } from "drizzle-orm/sqlite-core";
 
const table = sqliteTable('table', {
	text: text('text')
});
 
// will be inferred as text: "value1" | "value2" | null
text('text', { enum: ["value1", "value2"] })
text('text', { mode: 'json' })
text('text', { mode: 'json' }).$type<{ foo: string }>()

CREATE TABLE `table` (
	`text` text
);

Blob

A blob of data, stored exactly as it was input.

💡

It's recommended to use text('', { mode: 'json' }) instead of blob('', { mode: 'json' }), because it supports JSON functions:

All JSON functions currently throw an error if any of their arguments are BLOBs because BLOBs are reserved for a future enhancement in which BLOBs will store the binary encoding for JSON. https://www.sqlite.org/json1.html (opens in a new tab)

import { blob, sqliteTable } from "drizzle-orm/sqlite-core";
 
const table = sqliteTable('table', {
	blob: blob('blob')
});
 
blob('blob')
blob('blob', { mode: 'buffer' })
blob('blob', { mode: 'bigint' })
 
blob('blob', { mode: 'json' })
blob('blob', { mode: 'json' }).$type<{ foo: string }>()

CREATE TABLE `table` (
	`blob` blob
);

You can specify .$type<..>() for blob inference, it won't check runtime values. It provides compile time protection for default values, insert and select schemas.

// will be infered as { foo: string }
json: blob('json', { mode: 'json' }).$type<{ foo: string }>();
 
// will be infered as string[]
json: blob('json', { mode: 'json' }).$type<string[]>();
 
// won't compile
json: blob('json', { mode: 'json' }).$type<string[]>().default({});

Boolean

SQLite does not have native boolean data type, yet you can specify integer column to be in a boolean mode. This allows you to operate boolean values in your code and Drizzle stores them as 0 and 1 integer values in the database.

import { integer, sqliteTable } from "drizzle-orm/sqlite-core";
 
const table = sqliteTable('table', {
	id: integer('id', { mode: 'boolean' })
});

CREATE TABLE `table` (
	`id` integer
);

Bigint

Since there is no bigint data type in SQLite, Drizzle offers a special bigint mode for blob columns. This mode allows you to work with BigInt instances in your code, and Drizzle stores them as blob values in the database.

import { blob, sqliteTable } from "drizzle-orm/sqlite-core";
 
const table = sqliteTable('table', {
	id: blob('id', { mode: 'bigint' })
});

CREATE TABLE `table` (
	`id` blob
);

Customizing column data type

Every column builder has a .$type() method, which allows you to customize the data type of the column. This is useful, for example, with unknown or branded types.

type UserId = number & { __brand: 'user_id' };
type Data = {
	foo: string;
	bar: number;
};
 
const users = sqliteTable('users', {
  id: integer('id').$type<UserId>().primaryKey(),
  jsonField: blob('json_field').$type<Data>(),
});

Columns constraints

Not null

NOT NULL constraint dictates that the associated column may not contain a NULL value

const table = sqliteTable('table', { 
	numInt: integer('numInt').notNull() 
});

CREATE TABLE table (
	`numInt` integer NOT NULL
);

Default value

The DEFAULT clause specifies a default value to use for the column if no value is explicitly provided by the user when doing an INSERT. If there is no explicit DEFAULT clause attached to a column definition, then the default value of the column is NULL.

An explicit DEFAULT clause may specify that the default value is NULL, a string constant, a blob constant, a signed-number, or any constant expression enclosed in parentheses.

import { sql } from "drizzle-orm";
import { integer, sqliteTable } from "drizzle-orm/sqlite-core";
 
const table = sqliteTable('table', {
	int1: integer('int1').default(42),
	int2: integer('int2').default(sql`(abs(42))`)
});

CREATE TABLE `table` (
	`int1` integer DEFAULT 42
	`int2` integer DEFAULT (abs(42))
);

A default value may also be one of the special case-independent keywords CURRENT_TIME, CURRENT_DATE or CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

import { sql } from "drizzle-orm";
import { text, sqliteTable } from "drizzle-orm/sqlite-core";
 
const table = sqliteTable("table", {
  time: text("time").default(sql`CURRENT_TIME`),
  date: text("date").default(sql`CURRENT_DATE`),
  timestamp: text("timestamp").default(sql`CURRENT_TIMESTAMP`),
});

CREATE TABLE `table` (
	`time` text DEFAULT CURRENT_TIME
	`date` text DEFAULT CURRENT_DATE
	`timestamp` text DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

When using $default() or $defaultFn(), which are simply different aliases for the same function, you can generate defaults at runtime and use these values in all insert queries. These functions can assist you in utilizing various implementations such as uuid, cuid, cuid2, and many more

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Note: This value does not affect the drizzle-kit behavior, it is only used at runtime in drizzle-orm

import { text, sqliteTable } from "drizzle-orm/sqlite-core";
import { createId } from '@paralleldrive/cuid2';
 
const table = sqliteTable('table', {
	id: text('id').$defaultFn(() => createId()),
});

MySQL Indexes & Constraints