Reducing field lengths

[News]

All,
Initially when I setup my PHP and MySQL site I didn't know much about table
design. One of the "fixes" I am trying to do is reduce the size of the
fields to the length of the largest entry.

Is there an easy script that I can use for each table I have to do this ?
Some kind of global ALTER ?
Any ideas ?
Many thanks.

[Garp]

Re: Reducing field lengths


"News" <news@news.co m> wrote in message
news:1073cqc8h0 6o21a@corp.supe rnews.com...[color=blue]
> All,
> Initially when I setup my PHP and MySQL site I didn't know much about[/color]
table[color=blue]
> design. One of the "fixes" I am trying to do is reduce the size of the
> fields to the length of the largest entry.
>
> Is there an easy script that I can use for each table I have to do this ?
> Some kind of global ALTER ?
> Any ideas ?
> Many thanks.
>
>[/color]

I'm going to have to assume a bundle here, but I'm guessing you've got text
in CHARs, small-range integers in INT(11)s and the like. Your text is almost
always better off in a VARCHAR (variable length), automatically solving your
"reduce the size" problem. Moving your numeric fields ought to be a one-off,
so it shouldn't be too onerous - just how many tables are you adjusting?

Either way, adjusting those tables with phpMyAdmin will make you feel like
you're in control.

And for God's sake, back everything up first...

Garp

[Tony Marston]

Re: Reducing field lengths


"News" <news@news.co m> wrote in message
news:1073cqc8h0 6o21a@corp.supe rnews.com...[color=blue]
> All,
> Initially when I setup my PHP and MySQL site I didn't know much about[/color]
table[color=blue]
> design. One of the "fixes" I am trying to do is reduce the size of the
> fields to the length of the largest entry.
>
> Is there an easy script that I can use for each table I have to do this ?
> Some kind of global ALTER ?
> Any ideas ?
> Many thanks.[/color]

There is no short cut. You will have to create a separate ALTER for each
table and each column.

--
Tony Marston

http://www.tonymarston.net

[News]

Re: Reducing field lengths

Thanks everyone =)

"Tony Marston" <tony@NOSPAM.de mon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:c4sjeo$2e8 $1$8300dec7@new s.demon.co.uk.. .[color=blue]
>
> "News" <news@news.co m> wrote in message
> news:1073cqc8h0 6o21a@corp.supe rnews.com...[color=green]
> > All,
> > Initially when I setup my PHP and MySQL site I didn't know much about[/color]
> table[color=green]
> > design. One of the "fixes" I am trying to do is reduce the size of the
> > fields to the length of the largest entry.
> >
> > Is there an easy script that I can use for each table I have to do this[/color][/color]
?[color=blue][color=green]
> > Some kind of global ALTER ?
> > Any ideas ?
> > Many thanks.[/color]
>
> There is no short cut. You will have to create a separate ALTER for each
> table and each column.
>
> --
> Tony Marston
>
> http://www.tonymarston.net
>
>
>[/color]