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6.1.1 Integer Types

The types smallint, integer, and bigint store whole numbers, that is, numbers without fractional components, of various ranges. Attempts to store values outside of the allowed range will result in an error.

The type integer is the usual choice, as it offers the best balance between range, storage size, and performance. The smallint type is generally only used if disk space is at a premium. The bigint type should only be used if the integer range is not sufficient, because the latter is definitely faster.

The bigint type may not function correctly on all platforms, since it relies on compiler support for eight-byte integers. On a machine without such support, bigint acts the same as integer (but still takes up eight bytes of storage). However, we are not aware of any reasonable platform where this is actually the case.

SQL only specifies the integer types integer (or int) and smallint. The type bigint, and the type names int2, int4, and int8 are extensions, which are shared with various other SQL database systems.