[development] User Status [WAS: User last access]

[Ivan Sergio Borgonovo]

On Sat, 3 May 2008 19:12:46 +0000
"David Strauss" <david at fourkitchens.com> wrote:

> But they probably support another bit-based format.

The smallest thing you can find in SQL92 I think is boolean.
As said most DB support bit packing and some have aggregate functions
over boolean fields.

char doesn't look as a good choice because on UTF8 may have some
overhead, it is ordered according to locale and in need it misses
interesting aggregate functions.
I don't know SQL standards and enough implementations to know if you
can avoid both problems in most DB.
Some DB let you define collation and encoding on a field base... some
don't even let you define the encoding/collation on a table base.

The smallest SQL92 int is 2 bytes (smallint) someone may think it is
too large but it is very well handled by modern CPU and is not
affected by locale nor encoding... if you've more statuses...

-- 
Ivan Sergio Borgonovo
http://www.webthatworks.it