Difference between CHAR and VARCHAR in MySQL

Q

What Are the Differences between CHAR and VARCHAR in MySQL?

✍: FYIcenter.com

A

CHAR and VARCHAR are both ASCII character data types by default. But they have the following major differences:

  • CHAR stores values in fixed lengths. Values are padded with space characters to match the specified length.
  • VARCHAR stores values in variable lengths. Values are not padded with any characters. But 1 or 2 extra bytes are added to store the length of the data.

The table below shows you a good comparison of CHAR and VARCHAR data types:

Value    CHAR(4)       Length 
''       '    '        4 bytes
'ab'     'ab  '        4 bytes
'abcd'   'abcd'        4 bytes 

Value    VARCHAR(4)    Length
''       ''            1 byte 
'ab'     'ab'          3 bytes
'abcd'   'abcd'        5 bytes

 

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