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Choosing Your Column Types

Once you have identified all of the tables and columns that the database will need, you should determine each column’s data type. When you’re creating a table, MySQL requires that you explicitly state what sort of information each column will contain. There are three primary types, which is true for almost every database application:

  • Text (aka strings)

  • Numbers

  • Dates and times

Within each of these, there are many variants—some of which are MySQL specific. Choosing your column types correctly not only dictates what information can be stored and how, but also affects the database’s overall performance. Table 4.2 lists most of the available types for MySQL, how much space they take up, and brief descriptions of each type. Note that some of these limits may change in different versions of MySQL, and the character set (to be discussed in Chapter 6, “Database Design”) may also impact the size of the text types.

Table 4.2 MySQL Data Types

Type

Size

Description

CHAR[Length]

Length bytes

A fixed-length field from 0 to 255 characters long

VARCHAR[Length]

String length + 1 or 2 bytes

A variable-length field from 0 to 65,535 characters long

TINYTEXT

String length + 1 bytes

A string with a maximum length of 255 characters

TEXT

String length + 2 bytes

A string with a maximum length of 65,535 characters

MEDIUMTEXT

String length + 3 bytes

A string with a maximum length of 16,777,215 characters

LONGTEXT

String length + 4 bytes

A string with a maximum length of 4,294,967,295 characters

TINYINT[Length]

1 byte

Range of –128 to 127 or 0 to 255 unsigned

SMALLINT[Length]

2 bytes

Range of –32,768 to 32,767 or 0 to 65,535 unsigned

MEDIUMINT[Length]

3 bytes

Range of –8,388,608 to 8,388,607 or 0 to 16,777,215 unsigned

INT[Length]

4 bytes

Range of –2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 or 0 to 4,294,967,295 unsigned

BIGINT[Length]

8 bytes

Range of –9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 or 0 to 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 unsigned

FLOAT[Length, Decimals]

4 bytes

A small number with a floating decimal point

DOUBLE[Length, Decimals]

8 bytes

A large number with a floating decimal point

DECIMAL[Length, Decimals]

Length + 1 or 2 bytes

A DOUBLE stored as a string, allowing for a fixed decimal point

DATE

3 bytes

In the format YYYY-MM-DD

DATETIME

8 bytes

In the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS

TIMESTAMP

4 bytes

In the format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS; acceptable range starts in 1970 and ends in the year 2038

TIME

3 bytes

In the format of HH:MM:SS

ENUM

1 or 2 bytes

Short for enumeration, which means that each column can have one of several possible values

SET

1, 2, 3, 4, or 8 bytes

Like ENUM except that each column can have more than one of several possible values

Many of the types can take an optional Length attribute, limiting their size. (The brackets, [ ], indicate an optional parameter to be put in parentheses.) For performance purposes, you should place some restrictions on how much data can be stored in any column. But understand that attempting to insert a string five characters long into a CHAR(2) column will result in truncation of the final three characters. Only the first two characters would be stored; the rest would be lost forever. This is true for any field in which the size is set (CHAR, VARCHAR,INT, etc.). Thus, your length should always correspond to the maximum possible value—as a number—or the longest possible string—as text—that might be stored.

The various date types have all sorts of unique behaviors, the most important of which you’ll learn about in this book. All the behaviors are documented in the MySQL manual. You’ll use the DATE and TIME fields primarily without modification, so you do not have to worry too much about their intricacies.

There are also two special types—ENUM and SET—that allow you to define a series of acceptable values for that column. An ENUM column can store only one value of a possible several thousand, whereas SET allows for several of up to 64 possible values. These are available in MySQL but aren’t present in every database application.

To select the column types:

  1. Identify whether a column should be a text, number, or date/time type (Table 4.3).

    Table 4.3 users Table

    Column Name

    Type

    user_id

    number

    first_name

    text

    last_name

    text

    email

    text

    pass

    text

    registration_date

    date/time

    This is normally an easy and obvious step, but you want to be as specific as possible. For example, the date 2006-08-02 (MySQL format) could be stored as a string—August 2, 2006. But if you use the proper date format, you’ll have a more useful database (and, as you’ll see, there are functions that can turn 2006-08-02 into August 2, 2006).

  2. Choose the most appropriate subtype for each column (Table 4.4).

    Table 4.4 users Table

    Column Name

    Type

    user_id

    MEDIUMINT

    first_name

    VARCHAR

    last_name

    VARCHAR

    email

    VARCHAR

    pass

    CHAR

    registration_date

    DATETIME

    For this example, user_id is set as a MEDIUMINT, allowing for up to nearly 17 million values (as an unsigned, or non-negative, number). registration_date will be a DATETIME. It can store both the date and the specific time a user registered. When deciding among the date types, consider whether you’ll want to access just the date, the time, or possibly both.

    When choosing a subtype, err on the side of storing too much information.

    The other fields will be mostly VARCHAR, since their lengths will differ from record to record. The only exception is the password column, which will be a fixed-length CHAR (you’ll see why when inserting records in the next chapter). See the sidebar “CHAR vs. VARCHAR” for more information on these two types.

  3. Set the maximum length for text columns (Table 4.5).

    Table 4.5 users Table

    Column Name

    Type

    user_id

    MEDIUMINT

    first_name

    VARCHAR(20)

    last_name

    VARCHAR(40)

    email

    VARCHAR(60)

    pass

    CHAR(128)

    registration_date

    DATETIME

    The size of any field should be restricted to the smallest possible value, based on the largest possible input. For example, if a column stores a state abbreviation, it would be defined as a CHAR(2). Other times you might have to guess: I can’t think of any first names longer than about 10 characters, but just to be safe I’ll allow for up to 20.

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