What is the next best thing after VARCHAR(255)

Question

I have a table with about 2 million records in it. I have a field called message which is setup as varchar(160) and I need something bigger that varchar(255) because I need to be able to store about 500 characters in it, what is the next best datatype to use without increasing the size of the db drastically?

thanks

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 11 '12 at 19:06

8

Starting with MySQL 5.0.3, you can simply use VARCHAR(500).

M represents the maximum column length in characters. In MySQL 5.0, the range of M is 0 to 255 before MySQL 5.0.3, and 0 to 65,535 in MySQL 5.0.3 and later.

answered Apr 11 '12 at 19:06

Sergey Kalinichenko

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In other words, the next largest is `VARCHAR(256)`. :) – Marcus Adams Apr 11 '12 at 19:38
@MarcusAdams Yes! I was so tempted to write that in the answer, but in the end decided to simply quote from the manual. – Sergey Kalinichenko Apr 11 '12 at 19:50
great! I miss it, doubting it for a long time~ – Scarlett May 10 '12 at 09:29

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:30

3

If you're on 5.0.3 or later a varchar can be 65535 characters.

11.4.1. The CHAR and VARCHAR Types

MySQL: Large VARCHAR vs. TEXT

edited May 23 '17 at 10:30

Community

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answered Apr 11 '12 at 19:06

idstam

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 06 '16 at 18:19

0

You could use TEXT then Run PROCEDURE ANALYSE

that suggests optimal data types for each column that may help reduce table sizes.

answered Sep 06 '16 at 18:19

Leo

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What is the next best thing after VARCHAR(255)

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