BIGINT vs Char

[tsilenzio]

What is better to use if you plan on having about 10 looong numbers per row per entry in a table and on average theres about anywhere from 800 - 3000 values changeing every couple of seconds. Would it be better for space and / or perfermance to use a BIGINT or a CHAR?

[tsilenzio]

If anyone finds this confusing at all please let me know halting my project till i can get an answer =/

[fenway]

NEVER store numbers as CHARs.

[tsilenzio]

oh okay ty!

[clearstatcache]

of course BIGINT...

[btherl]

If bigint is too small, you can use decimal/numeric.  All these types have maximum ranges, so you may still need to resort to varchar in extreme cases.  The manual clarifies everything (make sure to check for your version of mysql)

[fenway]

If bigint is too small, you can use decimal/numeric.  All these types have maximum ranges, so you may still need to resort to varchar in extreme cases.  The manual clarifies everything (make sure to check for your version of mysql)

BIGINT is never too small... esp. unsigned, that's 8 billion.

[teng84]

and try not to use char if the length of the string  is not fixed always use var char for that

we only tend to use char if we are requiring the input to be at the same length