Hello,
I apologize if this topic has been discussed in the past. I am just looking
for feedback whether to use Datetime or Unixtime (32 bit Int) for my
timestamps. From what I can tell here are the advantages and disavantages
of each method:
Unixtime (stored as 32bit int):
advantages:
- should require less CPU cycles to process
- required only 4 bytes of storage.
disadvantages:
- a lot of 3rd party tools (interfacing thru ODBC) do not have native
functions for Unixtime (eg. Crystal Reports, Excel).
- Unixtime may confuse end-users.
Datetime:
advantages:
- 3rd party tools have native functions for Datetime
- Easier to understand for end-users
disadvantages:
- Likely cause more overhead to process (for queries and inserts).
- Requires 8 bytes of storage.
At the moment I am on the fence and would appriciate any feedback or
experience that anyone has.
Cheers,
Jason
