Re: Sizing of char,varchar and text fields

In article <412gpi$i50@sclinux.blm.gov>, <gslagel@sc.blm.gov> writes: > Path: pubxfer.news.psi.net!pubxfer.news.psi.net!psinntp!psinntp!gatech!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!col.hp.com!csn!borcore.usbr.gov!sacsa3.mp.usbr.gov!sclinux.blm.gov!news > From: Gary Slagel <gslagel@sc.blm.gov> > Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix > Subject: Sizing of char,varchar and text fields > Date: 18 Aug 1995 16:57:22 GMT > Organization: United States Bureau of Land Management > Lines: 12 > Message-ID: <412gpi$i50@sclinux.blm.gov> > NNTP-Posting-Host: sc0161.sc.blm.gov > Mime-Version: 1.0 > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1N (X11; I; AIX 2) > X-URL: news:comp.databases.informix > > I'm trying to figure out the best way to handle some large fields in my > database. VARCHAR would be perfect if it didn't have that 256 char limit. > CHARACTER is plenty long (32000) but I don't want it taking up 32000 bytes > every > time I put a 10 character name in the field. > > How about TEXT???? I can't find out for sure how much room text fields take. > I heard a rumor that they take up 2K of space as soon as you put in a 10 char > name. Is that true? > > Are there any clever solutions out there? > > I believe that is not just a rumor about taking up at least one block for each BLOB entry (and our block size is also 2k). You could try keeping the files outside of the database, and store only the filenames inside...