Storing leading zeros of integers in MySQL database as INTEGER

Question

I need MySQL to store numbers in a integer field and maintain leading zeros. I cannot use the zerofill option as my current field is Bigint(16) and numbers can vary in amoun

Answer 1

You can still sort the string(CHAR/VARCHAR) columns like integer using CAST

ORDER BY CAST(`col_name` AS SIGNED) DESC

So, you can store them in CHAR/ VARCHAR type fields.