Several of Raptor's system - including the Customer Data Platform and the Data Manager - use the same list of specific datatypes, for the sake of interconnectivity. This simple guide details all these datatypes and what they are used for.
A format used for purely binary datapoints of the type true/false. Often used for tracking in-stock status of merchandize, whether or not a customer has signed up for a rewards-program, and similar. Essentially, if a given datapoint has only two possible states, Boolean is the datatype to use.
Used for any kind of timestamp - be they rough dates or a time specific down to the second. Fairly self-explanatory, but a very important datapoint for many purposes.
A number with a decimal at the end. The most common use for this is prices, but it can come in handy for any kind of number-based datapoint that may include fractions. For numbers without decimals, you'll want to use Integer instead.
A rather specific format used for lists of E-mail adresses. Mostly used for persondata, needless to say.
Essentially an escalation of the Boolean type. Rather than being limited to a pure binary, the Enum lets you define a set number of values to track, but is otherwise just as rigid. Common usecases include data from drop-down menu selections, radio-buttons, checkboxes and similar situations where there's a fairly small number of discreet options to choose from.
A specific format used for personal ID's, often customer IDs. The most common example of this is likely the Cookie ID that may be used as a Person identifier in cases when you have nothing more solid, such as e-mails or similar, to fall back on.
Integers are 'clean' numbers without decimal. Usecases for this datatype are myriad, of course, from in-stock numbers to sales-numbers or page-views. Any figure where fractions aren't relevant will likely use Integer. One note, however, is that due to the way the system handles Integers, it cannot process numbers above 2 billion - so for datapoints that may reach such a height, it's recommended to use Decimal instead, even if no fractions are likely to be involved.
Another highly-specific format, tailored for lists of phone-numbers. Similar to Email, it's generally used to provide a Person Identifier in PersonData sets.
The simplest, and most common, datatype - can be viewed as the default, or the 'leftovers'. Principally used for text-strings - names, product-names, descriptions, etc. - but can be essentially anything. If a datapoint doesn't fit into any of the other datatypes above, it'll be left as a string. The sheer broadness of this datatype limits the system's ability to process or use it, however, so if there are other options for a given datapoints, it's generally wise to use them.