> I have a column that is VARCHAR(32). I use it to store MD5 hash values. MD5 hashes are always 32 byte.
So use char(32) instead. I do. -----Original Message----- From: Joel Rees [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2002 11:30 PM To: Tino Didriksen Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Enforcing Column Types Tino Didriksen queried: > I have a column that is VARCHAR(32). I use it to store MD5 hash values. MD5 > hashes are always 32 byte. > In other words, that's 1 byte wasted because it's VARCHAR. > > With 2500 entries and more on the way, that's at least 2500 byte wasted. 2500 bytes out of 82,500? Three percent. How valuable is that 3%? How does it balance with other wasted space in the table? Total space? > Is there no way to enforce a column type around the silent changes? You do understand the trade-offs involved in allowing variable length records in a database? that the database software has to either allocate the maximum width for each variable length field, or use an additional level of indirection in the indexing? Just a thought. Joel Rees Alps Giken Kansai Systems Develoment Suita, Osaka Filter fodder: sql,query (I thought the filter also accepted "database" and various sql commands, MySQL data types and things? Has the filter gone strict on us?) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Before posting, please check: http://www.mysql.com/manual.php (the manual) http://lists.mysql.com/ (the list archive) To request this thread, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Trouble unsubscribing? Try: http://lists.mysql.com/php/unsubscribe.php --------------------------------------------------------------------- Before posting, please check: http://www.mysql.com/manual.php (the manual) http://lists.mysql.com/ (the list archive) To request this thread, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Trouble unsubscribing? Try: http://lists.mysql.com/php/unsubscribe.php