Facebook user_id : big_int, int or string?

Question

Facebook\'s user id\'s go up to 2^32 .. which by my count it 4294967296.

mySQL\'s unsigned int\'s range is 0 to 4294967295 (which is 1 short - or my math is wrong) a

Answer 1

Because Facebook assigns the IDs, and not you, you must use BIGINTs.

Facebook does not assign the IDs sequentially, and I suspect they have some regime for assigning numbers.

I recently fixed exactly this bug, so it is a real problem.

I would make it UNSIGNED, simply because that is what it is.

I would not use a string. That makes comparisons painful and your indexes clunkier than they need to be.