Is it a good idea to use an integer column for storing US ZIP codes in a database?

Question

From first glance, it would appear I have two basic choices for storing ZIP codes in a database table:

1. Text (probably most common), i.e. char(5) o

Answer 1

Unless you have a business requirement to perform mathematical calculations on ZIP code data, there's no point in using an INT. You're over engineering.

Hope this helps,

Bill