Types again

thoand

Is there any diference between the MySQL colum types:

CHAR(255) and tinytext

if I understand the manual correct there is not, or am I wrong.

regards Thomas

Wien

I'm not 100% sure but I think there is a big difference about the way the data is stored.
If you use a char(255) and your string is only 21 characters long, mysql will need 255 bytes to store it
If you use a tinyint you will need 21 bytes + 1 byte (to store the lenght string I think)

For me tinyint is more like varchar(255) ? !

IWeb

I am also not completely sure but I think that tinytext needs a variable amount of space and char() uses a fix amount of space.

volleytotal_ch

Tinyint is for NUMBERS!!!! not for chars 😉

as far as i figured out on mysql.com - column types, char(255) should be the same as tinytext apart from saving space with the char version ...

but i never learned out 😉

stolzyboy

the char colum type has a max length of 255, this is a fixed-length type, meaning that when a value is inserted that has fewer characters than the max length of the column, the field will be right-padded with spaces, so if a column has been defined as char(10) and you want to store the value "happy", MySQL will actually store "happy" and five spaces, the spaces are removed from the result when the value is retrieved from the table

the tinytext, similar to the varchar, they differ only in the size of string they can contain, the tinytext type has a max length of 255, so the same as char, however an index can be created for an entire tinytext column

Wien

Oupsss sorry, I was obviously talking about TINYTEXT and not TINYINT 😃
So we don't really agree.... for me TINYTEXT is the same as VARCHAR(255) because only the ! ! !

TINYTEXT is not a fixed-length type, VARCHAR is not a a fixed-length type, only CHAR is

Let's say
string(M) (M = string length) :

CHAR(255) -> 255 bytes required
VARCHAR(255) -> M + 1 bytes required
TINYTEXT -> M + 1 bytes required

and if you still don't want to believe me :p have a look there