The md5() function returns a 32 char long hex-string and the obvious
thing would be to store it in a 32 char field. However I want to take
advantage of the hex functions in mysql hopefully enabling me to store
hex values under 16 char fields to save space (and memory since I need
to index the md5 checksum column). In short I want to store values
produced by the md5() function in a 16 char field and I would like to
search and display the field using strings in hex representation. In
the MySQL manual (http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/Hexadecimal_values.html)
it says that In numeric context these act like an integer (64-bit
precision). Does this in practice mean that the functions are
unsuitable to work with md5 checksums which are 128 bits??
Using two bigints is also an alternative but I am not sure what to
gain efficiencywise using this approach. There is a discussion about
bigints and md5 in this thead:
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=md....edu.tw&rnum=9
Does anyone have experience with using the md5() function and non 32
char fields?
regards,
Asle