Re: VARCHAR vs TEXT

> On Wed, 10 Oct 2001, Aasmund Midttun Godal wrote:
>
> > I am sure this question has been answered in some form or another
> > before, but I can't really find anything on exactly this issue.
> >
> > Are there any differences between varchar and text other than
> >
> > 1. varchar has limited size
> > 2. varchar is SQL 92 text is not?
> >
> > Especially regarding performance.
> >
> > Or am I correct to assume that if you need a place to store some text,
> > and you are not sure how much (like an email address or a name) you
> > are best off using text?
>
> Pretty much yes. text and varchar are pretty equivalent other than
> the fact that varchar specifies a maximum size.

I have added the following paragraph to the FAQ:

<P>CHAR() is best when storing strings that are usually the
same length. VARCHAR() is best when storing variable-length strings,
but you want to limit how long a string can be. TEXT is for strings
of unlimited length, maximum 1 gigabyte. BYTEA is for storing
binary data, particularly values that include NULL bytes.</P>

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