----- Original Message ----- > From: "Zbigniew" <zbigniew2...@gmail.com> > Subject: Using INTEGER instead of VARCHAR/DATE - is this a way to faster > access?
>> What about using ENUMs? They have nearly the performance of INTEGERs, but >> you don't have to maintain a string mapping in your programming logic. > > But are you able to estimate, what "boost" can i notice? 5% - or 50%, > or maybe even 500%? I'll give you an interesting reason to switch to ENUM (or smallint, if so inclined): Your data fields will be smaller. That not only means more records in a page (might be negligable), but more importantly, it'll make the index on that field smaller, meaning a) more of it will remain in memory and b) lookups on it will be marginally faster, too. I have no hard data on how it'll impact index performance (your dataset is yours to benchmark), but on one million of records (and you were talking several), a each byte saved is a megabyte of memory that can be used for other purposes, like data cache, which will speed up other things, too. -- Unhappiness is discouraged and will be corrected with kitten pictures. -- MySQL General Mailing List For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql To unsubscribe: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql
