Which types?

[dmccabe]

I am making a form for user to input new account information and am unsure which types to use for the best results.

 

For a telephone number is it best to use a VARCHAR ?

 

What about a block of text? BLOB?

 

Radio buttons which serve as YES/NO  ???

 

Any pointers would be appreciated

[rhodesa]

There will be a lot of variation based on personal preference, but for the things you listed:

 

Phone: VARCHAR

Text: *TEXT (there are a couple different variations of the TEXT type)

Yes/No: INT(1) with a 0/1 stored in it

 

 

[mwasif]

Yes/No: INT(1) with a 0/1 stored in it

TINYINT(1) would be fine

[dmccabe]

excuse my ignorance, but what is the (1) after INT and TINYINT ?

 

is it what I put in the length/value in phpmyadmin?

[dmccabe]

Just another thought, with the values now being an INT or TINYINT should I be passing the value of 1 or 0 instead of yes or no?

[dmccabe]

Text: *TEXT (there are a couple different variations of the TEXT type)

 

Sorry I should be asking all the questions at once instead of just as they come.

 

but what do you mean there are a couple of variations of text ? and which one should I be using ?  is "*TEXT" an actual type?

 

**EDIT** IGNORE - I see them now TEXT/MEDIUMTEXT/LONGTEXT  I have chose long text.

[aschk]

Check the mysql documentation for the size limitations of the different TEXT types. I have never needed anything more than TEXT. Also, regarding a yes|no option, you can always use BIT(1)

[mwasif]

excuse my ignorance, but what is the (1) after INT and TINYINT ?

 

is it what I put in the length/value in phpmyadmin?

Yes

 

Just another thought, with the values now being an INT or TINYINT should I be passing the value of 1 or 0 instead of yes or no?

Pass 1 for yes and 0 for No.

[aschk]

I should probably point out however that if you want a BIT to come out as an numeric representation you'll need to do the following:

SELECT `bitfield`+0 FROM ...

 

You need to +0 to the field that contains the bit to get the numeric representation out of it.

 

note: this is as of 5.0.3

[dmccabe]

Thanks guys!

 

 

One last question, when inputting a monetry amount would you use the type of "DECIMAL" ?

[mwasif]

Thanks guys!

 

 

One last question, when inputting a monetry amount would you use the type of "DECIMAL" ?

I use DOUBLE.

[aschk]

Use numeric for monetary amounts, e.g. NUMERIC(4,2) will allow you a value up to 9999.99 .

It ALSO has the added benefit of doing correct calculations on large numbers as opposed to double/float which suffer from 32bit rounding.

[fenway]

Thanks guys!

 

 

One last question, when inputting a monetry amount would you use the type of "DECIMAL" ?

I use DOUBLE.

DOUBLE is terrible for monetary values -- floating-point error hell.

 

Check the mysql documentation for the size limitations of the different TEXT types. I have never needed anything more than TEXT. Also, regarding a yes|no option, you can always use BIT(1)

In v5+, VARCHAR can be up to 65K -- much, much better than TEXT for about 15 different reasons.

 

And as for yes/no, I question your db design.

[dmccabe]

I question it too

 

lol but thanks for the help.

 

I am completely new to this php/mysql lark.  I have been messing with pre-made scripts for a long time, but this is the first time I have started creating from scratch.