Re: what data type to store fixed size integer?

@Dave

On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 9:18 PM, David Johnston <polobo(at)yahoo(dot)com> wrote:

> >>>> the data type does not need any arithmetic operations (as of
> integers).
>
>
>
> You arguably do not have a number but simply a string that looks like a
> number. Other examples are zip-codes and phone-numbers if you ignore
> symbols. Thus you should probably use an appropriately sized char/varchar.
>
>
Do you think using char/varchar which in this case will take about 20 bytes
for each entry is more proper than using bigint with only 4 bytes?

>
> Just something to consider; there is no hard and fast rule about this kind
> of thing. If you can think of any logical use of arithmetic operators, even
> if you do not need them now, you should use an integer.
>
The data is some kind of identifiers. I don't think they will need any kind
of arithmetic operators at all :)

thank you in advance

Arash