Skip to Content
SQL Antipatterns, Volume 1
book

SQL Antipatterns, Volume 1

by Bill Karwin
October 2022
Intermediate to advanced
380 pages
9h 35m
English
Pragmatic Bookshelf
Content preview from SQL Antipatterns, Volume 1

Mini-Antipattern: Storing Hash Strings in VARCHAR

“What data type should I use to store a hash?”

The result of a hash is commonly stored as a string of hexadecimal digits, and most developers default to using VARCHAR to store any string. If they don’t know how much space the string requires, they choose VARCHAR(255) because that is greatest length supported by the most implementations of SQL.

Each hash algorithm is different, but they have the property that no matter what the length of the input, all inputs return the same length result for a given hash algorithm. This determines the length of storage you need to store the hash. You don’t need to use a VARCHAR, since the length is fixed. Instead, use a fixed-length CHAR column.

A string ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

SQL Antipatterns

SQL Antipatterns

Bill Karwin
SQL in a Nutshell, 4th Edition

SQL in a Nutshell, 4th Edition

Kevin Kline, Regina O. Obe, Leo S. Hsu
SQL Cookbook, 2nd Edition

SQL Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Anthony Molinaro, Robert de Graaf

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9798888650011Errata Page