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Posted by: dazarobbo
Posted by: All of humanity
Because it would be considered a long, more infoIt will fit if it's an unsigned int.
However, I don't think it would be correct to think of a "topic" in the database as having a "post count" counter with it. Rather, each post would refer to a topic using referential integrity - the post contains the foreign key of the topic's primary key. That way you can collect all of the posts associated with the topic in a query.
That in itself would likely have a few constraints:
- What data type is being used as the primary key(s)?
- What is the limit of the result set?
- What are the hardware limitations?
- etc...
Didn't we occasionally have a few bugs a while back with a thread's post count not matching up with the actual post count? That might imply that there is or has been an additional post count field attached to threads. Although that bug could have just been related to banned users' posts...I can't remember. Either way, I'm sure that the posts reference the thread. It wouldn't make sense any other way.
So you're right, I doubt that posts (within the context of a single thread) would be limited by that.
IMO, in theory, the amount of replies allowed in one thread is limitless based solely on that relationship (not considering primary key limits, etc). Possible limitations exist as we get to some pretty unforeseen numbers, but that would likely relate to processing power and/or time. That's all speculation, though. I have no idea what's going on behind the curtains.
[Edited on 04.28.2012 11:27 PM PDT]