Re: datatype advice numeric vs. varchar

On Thu, Jan 18, 2007 at 01:15:02AM -0500, Gene wrote:
> I'm working on a voicemail application which involves storing phone
> numbers and other types that have long sequences of digits [0-9]. I
> need to be able to do pattern matching using LIKE and map the fields
> back to java String objects. I was thinking maybe it would be more
> efficient to use the numeric(x,0) type instead of a varchar since it
> could use less space on disk.

Your calculations are reasonable, but if you do it as numeric you're
going to be fighting the system the whole way. Numerics are treated as
numbers and things like LIKE don't work on them. When you select them,
java is likely to convert them to numbers there too.

Is this not a case of premature optimisation?

Have a nice day,
--
Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog(at)svana(dot)org> http://svana.org/kleptog/
> From each according to his ability. To each according to his ability to litigate.