Re: Record IDs: Numeric or String??

Always use ints. Also, make sure you actually need an INT before using it: Max Value Unsigned Integer: 4.3 billion or so Unsigned MediumInt: 16.7 million unsigned SmallInt: 65,535 unsigned TinyInt: 255 If you'll only ever have 300,000 rows in a table, use a mediumint. Saves space and sorting time. I use mediumint on almost all tables for primary keys and foreign keys. Peter On Wed, 6 Nov 2002, Monty wrote: > Is it more efficient to store record IDs in a MySQL database as an Integer > or a String? I like string IDs better because you can create meaningful > names, but, not sure if this means the DB has to work harder or not. > > Thanks! > > > -- > PHP Database Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Beckman Systems Engineer, Fairfax Cable Access Corporation beckman@purplecow.com http://www.purplecow.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------