Topic's view count in one of the threads in my forum is dangerously close to reaching the max value of UNSIGNED MEDIUMINT (16777215) in MySQL (8.0) which is the data type for topic_views column in phpbb_topics table. What happens when it reaches the limit and overflows? Can I change the data type in the database to UNSIGNED INT? What are the disadvantages of doing so?
Instead of reseting views count can I change the data type to unsigned int? I would rather do that to keep my topic's view count as is instead of starting from zero.
backup the database and then try it to see what happens.
remember, as long as you have backups you can't really hurt the board so bad that it can't be recovered in a few clicks.
I also doubt that the number of views means anything to anybody other than you so why not just do what BRF suggested.