Memory Management in MYSQL

[shehzad.rsi]

I wanted to know about the memory management mechanism in mysql.

In MS SQL Server the mechanism is if we create a field of varchar(100) lets say and store only 2 characters in it , the remaining 98 will be unused and iwll not affect the memory and if the field is empty then again no memory will be used.The same thing applies with all fields.

Is it similar in MYSQL as well or in MYSQL the entire memory is used irrespective of the content stored in it.

[r937]

it's the same