On 1/7/09, Jim Lyons <jlyons4...@gmail.com> wrote: > > There are other factors. If a table is completely fixed in size it makes > for a faster lookup time since the offset is easier to compute. This is > true, at least, for myisam tables. All books on tuning that I have read > have said the CHAR makes for more efficient lookup and comparison that > VARCHAR. > > Also, I was told by the instructor at a MySQL class that all VARCHAR > columns > are converted to CHAR when stored in memory. Can anyone else confirm this?
That's my recollection, also, derived from a MySQL class. IIRC, the char length is equal to the longest varchar record in the column. David
