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

Just to clarify the best practice:

1. Text format messages should almost always be stored as TEXT (they end up being arbitrarily long)

2. String attributes should be stored as VARCHAR (the destination user name, the subject, etc...).

I understand that you've got a front end limit, which is great until it isn't. *grin* The trick is to think of the DB as separate from the applications that connect to it. Just because one application puts a limit on the data, doesn't mean that the data is intrinsically limited.

What is it about the messages themselves that forces them to never be more then 3000 characters? If it's just an arbitrary application constraint (say, for a text box or something), use a TEXT field at the data layer.