Assigning TEXT data types to fields

[Tryst]

Hi all,

If I was to assign the data type TEXT to a field in my database, would this mean that MySQL will assign a space of 65,535 to each field entry in my database regardless of whether this field has any data in it?

There will be instances where the field (that is of data type TEXT) will contain no, or very little data, so I don't want all this unused space in my database.

Thanks

Tryst

[Mr. Brownstone]

Use VARCHAR(n) if you have fields which you know will contain very little data. For example, VARCHAR(255).

I’m afraid I do not know if space is allocated on-the-fly or in one 64k-chunk with TEXT fields.

[Tryst]

The problem is that I have a 'Notes' field where customers will have to enter notes, sometimes this can be of a high volume, so having a varchar() may not be appropriate.

Thanks

Tryst