Re: Column Types Changing

[Brent Baisley]

There's only one condition that I know of that will cause MySQL to 
change char to varchar. If there is another variable length field 
defined, like text or blob, then MySQL will change your fixed length 
char to variable length char. This is because the existence of a 
non-fixed length column makes the record length variable too, so there 
is no performance benefit to leaving the fixed length fields fixed, but 
there is a storage penalty.
If you think about it, MySQL is doing what is best.

On Thursday, October 30, 2003, at 03:25 PM, Tom O'Neill ((MySQL User)) 
wrote:

Someone told me that it is possible that MySQL will automatically 
change
column types in certain situations.  For example the a table with a 
char(5)
type field might dynamically change to a varchar(5) type field.  So a 
static
length column to a variable length column. Is this possible? If so 
what are
the circumstances that would cause MySQL to alter the table structure 
on its
own?   This doesn't really make sense to me.

-Tom

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Brent Baisley
Systems Architect
Landover Associates, Inc.
Search & Advisory Services for Advanced Technology Environments
p: 212.759.6400/800.759.0577
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