What is varchar in MySQL?

MySQL VARCHAR is the variable-length string whose length can be up to 65,535. MySQL stores a VARCHAR value as a 1-byte or 2-byte length prefix plus actual data. The length prefix specifies the number of bytes in the value.
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What VARCHAR means?

As the name suggests, varchar means character data that is varying. Also known as Variable Character, it is an indeterminate length string data type. It can hold numbers, letters and special characters.
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What is difference between VARCHAR and CHAR in MySQL?

A CHAR field is a fixed length, and VARCHAR is a variable length field. This means that the storage requirements are different - a CHAR always takes the same amount of space regardless of what you store, whereas the storage requirements for a VARCHAR vary depending on the specific string stored.
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What does VARCHAR 30 mean?

The CHAR and VARCHAR types are declared with a length that indicates the maximum number of characters you want to store. For example, CHAR(30) can hold up to 30 characters. The length of a CHAR column is fixed to the length that you declare when you create the table. The length can be any value from 0 to 255.
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What is VARCHAR in SQL with example?

VARCHAR is a variable length string data type, so it holds only the characters you assign to it. VARCHAR takes up 1 byte per character, + 2 bytes to hold length information. For example, if you set a VARCHAR(100) data type = 'Jen', then it would take up 3 bytes (for J, E, and N) plus 2 bytes, or 5 bytes in all.
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MySQL 26 - VARCHAR Data Type



What does VARCHAR 255 mean?

The effective maximum length of a VARCHAR is subject to the maximum row size (65,535 bytes, which is shared among all columns) and the character set used. Make sure you are aware of the effects of a multi-byte character set. VARCHAR(255) stores 255 characters, which may be more than 255 bytes.
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What does VARCHAR 50 mean?

Varchar(50) stores a maximum of 50 characters. Varchar(max) stores a maximum of 2,147,483,647 characters. But, varchar(50) keeps the 50 character space even if you don't store 50 characters. but varchar(max) is flexible to any size.
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What does VARCHAR 25 represent?

What does VARCHAR(25) represent? Answer: A character string up to 25 characters long.
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What does VARCHAR 20 mean in SQL?

May 3, 2018 at 5:27. 3. @NIMISHAN (20) is the length of string you will be inserting in the table. suppose social security number is of 9 digit, therefore its length is 9 and it can be easily put in column of datatype VARCHAR(20), but it will cause error in VARCHAR(2)
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Should I use VARCHAR or CHAR?

If you use char or varchar, we recommend to: Use char when the sizes of the column data entries are consistent. Use varchar when the sizes of the column data entries vary considerably. Use varchar(max) when the sizes of the column data entries vary considerably, and the string length might exceed 8,000 bytes.
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Which is better CHAR or VARCHAR?

CHAR is a fixed length field; VARCHAR is a variable length field. If you are storing strings with a wildly variable length such as names, then use a VARCHAR, if the length is always the same, then use a CHAR because it is slightly more size-efficient, and also slightly faster.
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Which is better VARCHAR or text in MySQL?

In most circumstances, VARCHAR provides better performance, it's more flexible, and can be fully indexed. If you need to store longer strings, use MEDIUMTEXT or LONGTEXT, but be aware that very large amounts of data can be stored in columns of these types.
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Is VARCHAR a data field?

A variable character field (varchar) is a data type which can contain any type of data: numeric, characters, spaces or punctuation. Depending on the database, the data type is capable of storing values up to its maximum size.
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What are data types in MySQL?

In MySQL there are three main data types: string, numeric, and date and time.
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What is the difference between CHAR and VARCHAR data types in SQL?

Difference between CHAR and VARCHAR datatypes

In CHAR, If the length of string is less than set or fixed length then it is padded with extra memory space. In VARCHAR, If the length of string is less than set or fixed length then it will store as it is without padded with extra memory spaces.
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What does VARCHAR 10 mean?

To give you an example, CHAR(10) is a fixed-length non-Unicode string of length 10, while VARCHAR(10) is a variable-length non-Unicode string with a maximum length of 10. This means the actual length will depend upon the data.
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How is VARCHAR stored?

All varchar data is stored at the end of the row in a variable length section (or in offrow pages if it can't fit in row). The amount of space it consumes in that section (and whether or not it ends up off row) is entirely dependant upon the length of the actual data not the column declaration.
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Does VARCHAR need length?

A VARCHAR column uses one length byte if values require no more than 255 bytes, two length bytes if values may require more than 255 bytes. MariaDB follows the standard SQL specification, and does not remove trailing spaces from VARCHAR values.
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What does VARCHAR 32 mean?

A varchar is a variable character field. This means it can hold text data to a certain length. A varchar(32) can only hold 32 characters, whereas a varchar(128) can hold 128 characters.
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What does VARCHAR 200 mean?

This is the var (variable) in varchar : you only store what you enter (and an extra 2 bytes to store length upto 65535) If it was char(200) then you'd always store 200 characters, padded with 100 spaces.
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What is the length of VARCHAR?

The size of the maximum size (m) parameter of a VARCHAR column can range from 1 to 255 bytes. If you are placing an index on a VARCHAR column, the maximum size is 254 bytes. You can store character strings that are shorter, but not longer, than the m value that you specify.
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What are SQL data types?

Data types in SQL Server are organized into the following categories:
  • Exact numerics. Unicode character strings.
  • Approximate numerics. Binary strings.
  • Date and time. Other data types.
  • Character strings.
  • bigint. numeric.
  • bit. smallint.
  • decimal. smallmoney.
  • int. tinyint.
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What is default size of VARCHAR in SQL?

VARCHAR is a variable-length character data type. The default length is 80, and the maximum length is 65000 octets. For string values longer than 65000, use Long Data Types.
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What does VARCHAR 100 mean?

varchar(100) I learned, is a variable length string character field up to. 100 characters in length.
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