Re: SQL Humor
Date: 18 Aug 2005 19:07:31 -0700
Message-ID: <1124417251.154623.200490_at_o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>
Hope you don't mind, but I have some fuzzy thoughts on datatypes, smart decisions, column lengths, and maybe the ghost of Y2K. How many DBAs use number datatypes to hold Social Security Numbers? How many use varchar(9) or char(9)? I always use the latter because the guru once told me never to use a numeric datatype if I wasn't going to do the math. Now, I wonder. There are about 270,000,000 people in the US of A, each with their own unique SSN. Say another 50,000,000 to 100,000,000 IDs are already accounted for for one reason or another. 10 to the 9th is only 1 billion, so nearly half the possible SSNs are used up already. Folks, I'm closer to retirement age than whipper-snapper age but I believe I could live to see us run out of SSNs unless the Feds do something DRASTIC, like add a digit. Then what are we going to do? Those who ignored the guru are probably sitting pretty. A BIGINT has plenty of room to grow. All those char and varchar tables, however, are going to need rewriting. Doesn't that sound familiar? Received on Fri Aug 19 2005 - 04:07:31 CEST