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I am switching from shared hosting to VPS on a different host. I was thinking just to type in the IP into DNS records, but a popup text about floating IPs got me confused. I'm not sure now if:
this is dynamic IP?
it's a static IP, but I would be more sure not to lose it if I reserve a floating IP, that I can later point to whichever virtual server or location I want?
This depends on your provider. The vast majority of the time a VPS would have a static IP address but there are some exceptions.
Some providers (for example Amazon) don't always assign static IP addresses, For some services they provide a mechanism (an ALIAS record) which allows DNS to update to follow the VPS. (An alias record is not a valid DNS record, rather the DNS&VPS infrastructure work in concert to keep an A record updated to reflect the updated IP record)
As far as I know, VPSes have static IP addresses.
Your best bet is to contact your hosting provider to confirm this if you have any doubts.
If I understood correctly, the fact that it's a floating address means that it can be assigned to your vps regardless of where it is withing the hosting service's infrastructure. Its "floatingness" doesn't make your VPS' IP address dynamic.
As a matter of fact, having a floating address works in your favor - I've had instances of a vps changing IP address due to my provider making changes to their infrastructure, and it wasn't pleasant. If the address is floating, and the provider has to move your vps to another host, or if you decide to go with co-location, your IP address will stay the same.
