MySQL: Large VARCHAR vs. TEXT?

Question

I\'ve got a messages table in MySQL which records messages between users. Apart from the typical ids and message types (all integer types) I need to save the actual message

Answer 1

Can you predict how long the user input would be?

VARCHAR(X)

Max Length: variable, up to 65,535 bytes (64KB)
Case: user name, email, country, subject, password

---

TEXT

Max Length: 65,535 bytes (64KB)
Case: messages, emails, comments, formatted text, html, code, images, links

---

MEDIUMTEXT

Max Length: 16,777,215 bytes (16MB)
Case: large json bodies, short to medium length books, csv strings

---

LONGTEXT

Max Length: 4,294,967,29 bytes (4GB)
Case: textbooks, programs, years of logs files, harry potter and the goblet of fire, scientific research logging

There's more information on this question.