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Scalar Data Types

Aerospike records have one or more bins. Each bin will hold a distinct scalar data type, such as Integer or String, a collection data type, such as List or Map, a probabilistic data type such as HyperLogLog, or a geospatial GeoJSON data type. (In some portions of the Aerospike documentation and in some messages, a scalar data type is called a "particle".)

The following are scalar data types:

Integer​

Integers are 64-bit numeric values.

  • Each integer requires 8 bytes (64 bits) of storage.
  • For touchpoints in the database where integers need to assume a signed-ness, such as secondary index, the integer is signed, in the range of [ −(2^63) to 2^63 − 1 ].
  • An atomic increment operation can be applied to integer values. This can be used to implement counters.
  • Secondary indexes are supported on integer data type, for both equality and range queries.

Double​

The double data type is stored in 64-bit IEEE-754 format.

  • An atomic increment operation can be applied to double values.
  • Support for the double data type added in Aerospike versions 3.6.0.

String​

Strings are opaque byte arrays. They are not bound to an encoding, which allows you to use any character encoding for strings.

  • For touchpoints in the database where strings need to assume an encoding, it will assume UTF-8.
  • Client libraries can enforce encoding (for example, Java and C# clients always convert to UTF-8). Refer to the client library for your implementation.
  • Cross-language compatibility is up to the application. The application sets encoding for reads and writes reads.
  • Record size is limited to 128 KB. Do not store huge strings.
  • Atomic prepend and append operations can be applied to string values.
  • Secondary indexes are supported on string data type, for equality query.

Boolean​

The boolean data type holds a value of either true or false.

  • Stored as a single byte on the server.
  • Support for boolean bin values added in Aerospike version 5.6.0.
  • Prior to version 5.6.0 only the List and Map data types could contain boolean values.

Blob/Bytes​

Blobs are byte arrays of a specific size.

  • Any binary data of any type can be stored. Note that bytes are not NULL terminated.
  • As of version 4.6.0, an extensive API of bitwise operations can be applied to byte values.

Language-Specific Serialized Blobs​

Using their native-language serialization mechanism, the following Aerospike clients serialize unsupported data types into blobs. These blobs are deserialized automatically on reads.

  • Java
  • C# .NET
  • Python
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