efrazier@stripped wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> A while ago when asking about ALTER TABLE I was told that changing a field
> from char to varchar will result in the other chars in that table being
> converted to varchars, which it certainly seemed to have done, but when the
> table was made that way in the first place it at least looks like it is
> allowed. I just noticed I have a table that has varchar and chars at the
> same time. I thought this was not possible?
>
> mysql> explain Section_numbers;
> +---------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
> | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
> +---------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
> | Chapter | char(3) | YES | | NULL | |
> | Section | smallint(6) | | PRI | 0 | |
> | Name | varchar(100) | | MUL | | |
> | Type | char(3) | | MUL | | |
> +---------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
>
> Thanks,
>
> Eric
>
Maybe it is possible, but it better in most instance to
split your table into two parts - one with fixed length
columns and the other with variable length. It will
speed up a lot of queries by a great deal. And if you
can find a way to replace a char with an int, especially
in a key field, do it by all means, you queries are
going to fly!
--
Sasha Pachev
http://www.sashanet.com/ (home)
http://www.direct1.com/ (work)
