MySQL Bugs: #6055: Manual not explicit on display width vs field length for numeric types

Bug #6055	Manual not explicit on display width vs field length for numeric types
Submitted:	13 Oct 2004 1:11	Modified:	13 Oct 2004 16:39
Reporter:	Lachlan Mulcahy	Email Updates:
Status:	Closed	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL Server: Documentation	Severity:	S3 (Non-critical)
Version:	All	OS:	Any (All)
Assigned to:	Paul DuBois	CPU Architecture:	Any

Description:
The manual does not make enough of a note about the difference between field length and 
display width for numeric data types. Specifically the INT column types. It is a common 
misconception that the N in 'int(N)' relates to the field length. 

This is probably because the manual does not actually appear to have a definition for the 'N' 
parameter on the numeric types page at all! People probably just tend to assume it works 
similarly to char(N).

See:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/Numeric_type_overview.html

Lachlan

How to repeat:
N/A for documentation errors

Suggested fix:
Update manual page to make special note of the misconception and also to give a definition of 
the N parameter.

Thank you for your bug report. This issue has been addressed in the
documentation. The updated documentation will appear on our website
shortly, and will be included in the next release of the relevant
product(s).