Your application uses the field size and type to validate the data
BEFORE sending it to MySQL.
Norris, Joseph wrote:
>Hello,
>
>
>What you say below is of great interest to me. Currently I have been
>writing front end code to handle the size
>issue but I would like to be open to other possibilities. So my question
>about your answer below is:
>
>Just how does the developer obtain the error condition from Mysql when an
>insert
>or update sends data that is too long to a field with a restricted size?
>
>Thanks
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Ralf Narozny [mailto:rnarozny@stripped]
>Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2002 1:59 AM
>To: Desmond Lee
>Cc: mysql@stripped
>Subject: Re: question about varchars
>
>
>Hello!
>
>Desmond Lee wrote:
>
>>Hello there
>>
>>
>>Mysql documentation says the following:
>>
>>"values are stored using only as many characters as are needed, plus
>>one byte to record the length. Values are not padded; instead,
>>trailing spaces are removed when values are stored."
>>
>>
>>So, then would there be anything wrong with making all my varchar's up
>>to 255. That is defining most of my fields to be varchar(255) even
>>when i know they may only go 100?
>>
>
>
>There's nothing wrong with it for storage reasons only, but many
>database developers use lengths to restrict the size of the entries. For
>example storing the zipcodes from more than one country might need at
>max 15 characters, so why allowing 255, preventing MySQL to raise an
>error, if the ZIP is 100 chars long.
>
>Greetings
> Ralf
>
