>>I need to record a 4 bytes unsigned value in my table (range 0 - 4,294,967,295). Currently I am using bigint to represent this value but I am wasting around 3 bytes per record (especially considering that a record is 2100 bytes).
>>
>>Anywho, do I have any other options than to use bigint? Does MSSQL have an unsigned field type?
>>I know I could use binary(4) but the field is PK so I would like it to be a "visible" type.
>>
>>Are there any problems using binary(x) as PK?
>>
>>I just had a lot of thoughts running through my head while eating lunch.
>>
>>Einar
>
>Einar,
>
>You can store 4 unsinged bytes in an int column if you do some casting:
>
>

>select cast(4294967295 as binary(8))
>select cast(cast(4294967295 as binary(8)) as char(8))
>select right(cast(cast(4294967295 as binary(8)) as char(8)), 4)
>select cast(right(cast(cast(4294967295 as binary(8)) as char(8)), 4) as binary(4))
>select cast(cast(right(cast(cast(4294967295 as binary(8)) as char(8)), 4) as binary(4)) as int)
>

invert the cast order:

select cast(cast(4294967295 as binary(8)) as int)
select cast(cast(cast(4294967295 as binary(8)) as int) as binary(4))