Deluge

Overview

In simple terms, if a variable is used to refer to stored data, the data type is used to refer to the type of data. 

For a computer application, a number, a letter, and a date are all the same, a piece of information, or in other words, data. But different types of data cannot always react with each other. For example, it is illogical to multiply a number with a date. Since, in programming, there is often a need to perform operations between different types of data, there arises a need to differentiate between the types. And this is exactly the purpose of data types.

Data types define what type the given data is, and as a result, how the user can use the data. 

The following data types are supported in Deluge.

• Text - The text, datatype represents a sequence of characters. These characters can be text characters, special characters, numeric characters, or other valid input, and must be enclosed in double quotes.
  Eg. Name field, Email field, and more.
   
• Number -  The Number datatype represents integer values. It does not include decimal values. However, Number datatype can be used to perform operations with decimal values, in which case the end result becomes a decimal datatype.
  Eg. Number field, Auto Number field, and more.
   
• Decimal - The decimal type represents decimal values, commonly used for values such as currency or percentage.
  Eg. Currency field, Percentage field, and more.
   
• Boolean - The decision datatype represents the values - true and false. The values True or False must not be enclosed in quotes. And the values are not case-sensitive.
  Eg. Decision Box field.
   
• Date-Time - The date-time datatype represents date and time values in a variety of formats, as specified under settings in the zoho Product you use. Date-time values must be enclosed within single quotes. A date can also be declared without time, in which case the hours, mins, and seconds are taken as 0 by default.
  Eg. Date field, Date-Time fields, Prediction field, and more.
   
• Time - The time datatype represents time values in both 12-hour and 24-hour formats. This data type works independently of a date value.
  Eg. Time field.
   
• List - List is a data-type which can hold a collection of values. And each value present in the list is called an element. A list can contain elements of different types say number, text, date etc. grouped together. So you can store a number, a text, a date etc as different elements in the same list. The elements in a list are marked using an index value.
  Eg. Checkbox field, Multiselect field, and more.
   
• Key-Value - Key-Value is a data-type which holds a collection of key-value pairs. The keys can be used to retrieve the corresponding values. Keys must be unique. If the same key is specified again, the new value will overwrite the previous value.
  Eg. 

  ItemQuantity = {"Item" : "Magic_Mouse", "Number" : 23};

• Collection - The collection datatype is used to store both a list of elements or key-value pairs. Each collection variable at a time can act only as a list variable containing elements, or as a map variable containing key-value pairs. It cannot contain list elements and key-value pairs together in a single collection.
  Eg.

   materials = Collection("Mobile phone","Laptop","Adapter");

• File - The File is a unique type of data. Files in Deluge must be fetched from the web or cloud service. It doesn't operate on offline files. There are several built-in functions called File functions that operate on FILE datatype.