RE: [PHP-DEV] Re: [PHP-DB] PHP and MySQL queries...

In these days and times, conservation of a meg of disk space is really not a consideration. Not the primary one anyway. The data should be stored in a format such that the storage itself and then retrieval can be executed with a minimum of handling/intervention other than the required sanity-checking. I've found that a set of date/time select controls and storage in a datetime field have been optimal. Insertion requires no parsing or complex handling (just some gluing of array elements) and retrieval with mysql's date-related functions means I don't need to touch the data one bit to display it in a meaningful way. For me, having to parse information before insertion, or after retrieval in order to display it, wastes far more resources than storing dates in a format other than an int. Mike Robinson IT / Developer - Toronto Star TV Phone: 416.945.8786 Fax: 416.869.4566 Email: mrobinson@torontostartv.com > -----Original Message----- > From: Mike Frazer [mailto:mike@invertedmind.com] > Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2001 8:54 AM > To: php-dev@lists.php.net; php-db@lists.php.net > Subject: [PHP-DEV] Re: [PHP-DB] PHP and MySQL queries... > > > Agreed. This is especially useful when you need to conserve > every byte you > can; a timestamp of "10/24/2001" or something similar is > going to take 10 > bytes as a string and an indeterminate number of bytes for an actual > timestamp because of system variations, whereas an integer > value of 10242001 > will take you 2-4 bytes depending on the type of int you > declare. Not a lot > of space, but assume for a second you have 30 fields in your > database and 5 > million rows...suddenly those 6-8 bytes have multiplied on > this one field > alone. Space and speed are important in DBs :) > > Mike Frazer