Best field type for small numbers

Total mysql noob!

[madmatt69]

Hey all,

Very new to mysql, at least editing it and all that.

I'd like to add a field to an existing database. The field will just contain a series of numbers, no more that 4 numbers per entry. It's basically a list of some telephone area codes.

In phpmyadmin I have several options under the "Type" menu - I'm sure I could just use "varchar" but I'm wondering if there's some sort of more efficient type I should be using or anything like that, since this DB will grow to be pretty big.

Thanks for any info, and patience as I stumble through this :)

[coopster]

You mean you are going to store the numbers as follows?

myField: 
-------- 
123,456,789,012 
987,654,321,098

In a string or something like that? Why not separate them into rows rather than all in one column? It is going to make searching by area code much, much easier and much faster.

[madmatt69]

I think it would be rows.

For example I have a db called 'country' and that includes a list of some countries in each row.

So:
Germany
---
France
---
USA

etc. so for Germany i'd like add "Country_code" and put the number in there.

Know what I mean?

[coopster]

I believe so. Then I would create the table with a code column that would contain one code per entry. If you need more than one entry per country you can do so.

Turkey 123 
France 456 
Canada 789 
Canada 012

To hold an integer that size I would use SMALLINT.

[madmatt69]

Cool, thanks for the advice - I'll give it a shot!

[coopster]

MySQL has a column of type TINYINT but that would not be appropriate. It would not work as you expect. Although TINYINT is 3 digits long, the maximum values are in the range -128 to 127 (or 0 to 255 if unsigned). That's why I think SMALLINT is your best choice.