What are the Length Limitations of MySQL's TEXT Field?

MySQL TEXT Field Length Limitations

When creating database tables, it's crucial to consider the maximum length of text fields to ensure data integrity and optimize storage. In MySQL, the TEXT data type is used to store variable-length strings.

Character Limit for TEXT:

A TEXT field can store up to 2^16 - 1 characters when using single-byte characters. This translates to approximately 65,535 characters.

Variable-Length Nature:

Unlike VARCHAR, which allows you to specify a fixed length, TEXT fields have a variable length and can store any number of characters up to the maximum limit. This is particularly useful for storing unstructured or long text content.

MySQL Storage Requirements:

The actual storage space required for a TEXT field depends on the character encoding used:

• With UTF-8 encoding, characters can consume between 1 and 4 bytes each.
• Therefore, the maximum storage space for a TEXT field using UTF-8 is 2^16 - 1 bytes * 4 bytes/char = 262,144 bytes (approximately 256 KB).

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