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      10.4.2.1 Optimizing for Numeric Data
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      For unique IDs or other values that can be represented as
              either strings or numbers, prefer numeric columns to
              string columns. Since large numeric values can be stored
              in fewer bytes than the corresponding strings, it is
              faster and takes less memory to transfer and compare them.
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      If you are using numeric data, it is faster in many cases
              to access information from a database (using a live
              connection) than to access a text file. Information in the
              database is likely to be stored in a more compact format
              than in the text file, so accessing it involves fewer disk
              accesses. You also save code in your application because
              you can avoid parsing the text file to find line and
              column boundaries.
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