Best way to store a file size in bytes?

Question

What's the best way to store a file size in bytes in database?

Considering that the size can be huge MB, GB, TB...

I'm using bigint (max: 9.223.372.036.854.775.807), but is it the best way?

Answer 1

A 64-bit integer is all you need.

If bigint has a maximum value of 9.223.372.036.854.775.807, then that suggests a signed 64-bit integer, which is perfectly adequate.

From the description, it does not look like 32-bit integers will do what you need, so unless you actually need to support larger sizes than 9.223.372.036.854.775.807, then bigint is the most efficient form you could possibly choose.

If you needed larger values (I can't imagine why), then you'd need to either store it as a string, or find a large-number library that will use as many bytes as neccessary to store the number (ie, has no maximum size).

Answer 2

That's the type I would choose. It corresponds to the long type in c# (a 64 bit number), and it is the same type that is used by Windows to store file sizes.