BIGINT is an integer data type that allocates 8 bytes for whole-number values. It becomes useful when a numeric value may exceed INT's unsigned maximum of 4,294,967,295. section 4.6
Choose an integer type by checking the expected values in the requirements and sample data:
- Check whether the attribute can be negative; signed values allow negatives, while unsigned values do not. section 4.6
- Use BIGINT when the value may exceed INT's capacity; smaller types may be insufficient for very large identifiers. section 4.6
- For a payment_id, BIGINT is large enough, although INT may be sufficient when the expected scale is limited. section 4.6
