What\'s the Difference Between BLOB and TEXT Datatypes in MySQL?

Differences between BLOB and TEXT Datatypes in MySQL

MySQL offers two datatypes, BLOB (Binary Large Object) and TEXT, for handling different types of data. While both can store large amounts of information, they serve distinct purposes. Let's explore their differences:

Data Types:

• BLOB: A binary data type that stores unstructured data, such as images, videos, and other non-textual information.
• TEXT: A textual data type that stores large strings of characters.

Binary vs. Character String:

• BLOB: Represents binary data, where each character is stored as an individual byte.
• TEXT: Represents non-binary strings, with each character stored according to a specific character set and collation.

Size:

• TEXT: Available in sizes ranging from TINYTEXT (256 bytes) to LONGTEXT (4GB).
• BLOB: Also available in various sizes, from TINYBLOB to LONGBLOB (4GB).

Sorting and Comparison:

• BLOB: Sorted and compared based on the numeric values of the bytes.
• TEXT: Sorted and compared based on the collation of the associated character set.

Conversion:

• TEXT: Converts data to the character set associated with the column.
• BLOB: Stores data as binary strings, without any character set conversion.

Specific Example:

MEDIUMBLOB and MEDIUMTEXT are data types with a maximum size of 255 bytes. However, there's a subtle difference:

• MEDIUMBLOB: Stores exactly 255 bytes.
• MEDIUMTEXT: Stores up to 255 characters of data, where L in the notation MEDIUMTEXT L 3 bytes represents the length of the data in characters.

This distinction ensures that MEDIUMTEXT can store variable-length text, while MEDIUMBLOB always stores a fixed 255 bytes of data.

The above is the detailed content of What\'s the Difference Between BLOB and TEXT Datatypes in MySQL?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!