[RESOLVED] Data too long for column

[nogeekyet]

How do I extend the size of a column. The column is a pipe delimited string and the max. size will be 400 characters. Everything is in place and everything is working. Now this problem.

[bradgrafelman]

A better question might be... why is the data in that column a pipe delimited string?

You might read up on database normalization, because it sounds like you're trying to store multiple pieces of data in one column (or data that is otherwise not atomic, which would violate the first normal form).

[nogeekyet]

I guess it's time to redesign it. Pitty, because it's all functioning well. Thanks for making my day.:o Well, it's raining anyway......

[bradgrafelman]

nogeekyet;10945143 wrote:

I guess it's time to redesign it. Pitty, because it's all functioning well.

That certainly may be the case - unnormalized databases aren't necessarily broken or completely unusable (well, usually, anyway :p)... it's just that they aren't as efficient and/or less prone for duplicate/varying data as a normalized DB would be.

You could certainly slap on a TEXT/LONGTEXT definition and ignore it, but that definitely wouldn't be the recommended way to go about designing your DB structure.