A MAC address is just a number, it doesn't contain letters unless you're doing something
silly like storing the HEX representation of it. Do not use CHAR! This does DOUBLE for
all of you storing IP addresses!
Since a MAC address is going to be between 48 and 64 bits, then BIGINT is appropriate.
When you select the value you can do SELECT HEX(mac) FROM table; to get a more readable
version of it. When you're storing values you can do: INSERT INTO table (mac) VALUES
(x'FFEEDDCCBBAA9988'); to convert a hex string to the numeric value.
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 09:53:58 -0400
To: Ilia KATZ <ikatz@stripped>
From: Fish Kungfu <fish.kungfu@stripped>
Cc: mysql@stripped
Subject: Re: MAC address as primary key - BIGINT or CHAR(12)
Message-ID: <f76e38f90905140653o4f6513aft103e8c3b526b3962@stripped>
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Since MAC addreses also contain letters, BIGINT wouldn't work. So, yes, I
would say go with CHAR(12).
On May 14, 2009 9:43 AM, "Ilia KATZ" <ikatz@stripped> wrote:
Hi.
Currently I have a table:
1. MAC address defined as BIGINT
2. MAC address set as primary key
Should I consider changing it to CHAR(12)?
Replies will be appreciated.
Ilia
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