Chapter 11. Column Types

Chapter 11. Column Types
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11.1. Column Type Overview

11.1.1. Overview of Numeric Types
11.1.2. Overview of Date and Time Types
11.1.3. Overview of String Types

11.1.1. Overview of Numeric Types

A summary of the numeric column types follows. For additional information, see Section 11.2, “Numeric Types”. Column storage requirements are given in Section 11.5, “Column Type Storage Requirements”.

M indicates the maximum display width. The maximum legal display width is 255. Display width is unrelated to the storage size or range of values a type can contain, as described in Section 11.2, “Numeric Types”.

If you specify ZEROFILL for a numeric column, MySQL automatically adds the UNSIGNED attribute to the column.

SERIAL is an alias for BIGINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT UNIQUE.

SERIAL DEFAULT VALUE in the definition of an integer column is an alias for NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT UNIQUE.

Warning: You should be aware that when you use subtraction between integer values where one is of type UNSIGNED, the result is unsigned. See Section 12.8, “Cast Functions and Operators”.

BIT[(M)]
A bit-field type. M indicates the number of bits per value, from 1 to 64. The default is 1 if M is omitted.
This data type was added in MySQL 5.0.3 for MyISAM, and extended in 5.0.5 to MEMORY, InnoDB, and BDB. Before 5.0.3, BIT is a synonym for TINYINT(1).
TINYINT[(M)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]
A very small integer. The signed range is -128 to 127. The unsigned range is 0 to 255.
BOOL, BOOLEAN
These are synonyms for TINYINT(1). A value of zero is considered false. Non-zero values are considered true.
In the future, full boolean type handling will be introduced in accordance with standard SQL.
SMALLINT[(M)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]
A small integer. The signed range is -32768 to 32767. The unsigned range is 0 to 65535.
MEDIUMINT[(M)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]
A medium-size integer. The signed range is -8388608 to 8388607. The unsigned range is 0 to 16777215.
INT[(M)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]
A normal-size integer. The signed range is -2147483648 to 2147483647. The unsigned range is 0 to 4294967295.
INTEGER[(M)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]
This is a synonym for INT.
BIGINT[(M)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]
A large integer. The signed range is -9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807. The unsigned range is 0 to 18446744073709551615.
Some things you should be aware of with respect to BIGINT columns:
- All arithmetic is done using signed BIGINT or DOUBLE values, so you shouldn't use unsigned big integers larger than 9223372036854775807 (63 bits) except with bit functions! If you do that, some of the last digits in the result may be wrong because of rounding errors when converting a BIGINT value to a DOUBLE.
  MySQL 5.0 can handle BIGINT in the following cases:
  - When using integers to store big unsigned values in a BIGINT column.
  - In MIN(col_name) or MAX(col_name), where col_name refers to a BIGINT column.
  - When using operators (+, -, *, and so on) where both operands are integers.
- You can always store an exact integer value in a BIGINT column by storing it using a string. In this case, MySQL performs a string-to-number conversion that involves no intermediate double-precision representation.
- The -, +, and * operators use BIGINT arithmetic when both operands are integer values. This means that if you multiply two big integers (or results from functions that return integers), you may get unexpected results when the result is larger than 9223372036854775807.
FLOAT[(M,D)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]
A small (single-precision) floating-point number. Allowable values are -3.402823466E+38 to -1.175494351E-38, 0, and 1.175494351E-38 to 3.402823466E+38. These are the theoretical limits, based on the IEEE standard. The actual range might be slightly smaller depending on your hardware or operating system.
M is the total number of decimal digits and D is the number of digits following the decimal point. If M and D are omitted, values are stored to the limits allowed by the hardware. A single-precision floating-point number is accurate to approximately 7 decimal places.
If UNSIGNED is specified, negative values are disallowed.
Using FLOAT might give you some unexpected problems because all calculations in MySQL are done with double precision. See Section A.5.7, “Solving Problems with No Matching Rows”.
DOUBLE[(M,D)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]
A normal-size (double-precision) floating-point number. Allowable values are -1.7976931348623157E+308 to -2.2250738585072014E-308, 0, and 2.2250738585072014E-308 to 1.7976931348623157E+308. These are the theoretical limits, based on the IEEE standard. The actual range might be slightly smaller depending on your hardware or operating system.
M is the total number of decimal digits and D is the number of digits following the decimal point. If M and D are omitted, values are stored to the limits allowed by the hardware. A double-precision floating-point number is accurate to approximately 15 decimal places.
If UNSIGNED is specified, negative values are disallowed.
DOUBLE PRECISION[(M,D)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL], REAL[(M,D)] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]
These are synonyms for DOUBLE. Exception: If the server SQL mode includes the REAL_AS_FLOAT option, REAL is a synonym for FLOAT rather than DOUBLE.
FLOAT(p) [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]
A floating-point number. p represents the precision in bits, but MySQL uses this value only to determine whether to give the resulting column a data type of FLOAT or DOUBLE. If p is from 0 to 24, the data type becomes FLOAT with no M or D values. If p is from 25 to 53, the data type becomes DOUBLE with no M or D values. The range of the resulting column is the same as for the single-precision FLOAT or double-precision DOUBLE data types described earlier in this section.
FLOAT(p) syntax is provided for ODBC compatibility.
DECIMAL[(M[,D])] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]
For MySQL 5.0.3 and above:
A packed “exact” fixed-point number. M is the total number of decimal digits (the precision) and D is the number of digits after the decimal point (the scale). The decimal point and (for negative numbers) the ‘-’ sign are not counted in M. If D is 0, values have no decimal point or fractional part. The maximum number of digits (M) for DECIMAL is 65 (64 from 5.0.3 to 5.0.5). The maximum number of supported decimals (D) is 30. If D is omitted, the default is 0. If M is omitted, the default is 10.
If UNSIGNED is specified, negative values are disallowed.
All basic calculations (+, -, *, /) with DECIMAL columns are done with a precision of 65 digits.
Before MySQL 5.0.3:
An unpacked fixed-point number. Behaves like a CHAR column; “unpacked” means the number is stored as a string, using one character for each digit of the value. M is the total number of digits and D is the number of digits after the decimal point. The decimal point and (for negative numbers) the ‘-’ sign are not counted in M, although space for them is reserved. If D is 0, values have no decimal point or fractional part. The maximum range of DECIMAL values is the same as for DOUBLE, but the actual range for a given DECIMAL column may be constrained by the choice of M and D. If D is omitted, the default is 0. If M is omitted, the default is 10.
If UNSIGNED is specified, negative values are disallowed.
DEC[(M[,D])] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL], NUMERIC[(M[,D])] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL], FIXED[(M[,D])] [UNSIGNED] [ZEROFILL]
These are synonyms for DECIMAL. The FIXED synonym is available for compatibility with other servers.

11.1.2. Overview of Date and Time Types

A summary of the temporal column types follows. For additional information, see Section 11.3, “Date and Time Types”. Column storage requirements are given in Section 11.5, “Column Type Storage Requirements”.

DATE
A date. The supported range is '1000-01-01' to '9999-12-31'. MySQL displays DATE values in 'YYYY-MM-DD' format, but allows you to assign values to DATE columns using either strings or numbers.
DATETIME
A date and time combination. The supported range is '1000-01-01 00:00:00' to '9999-12-31 23:59:59'. MySQL displays DATETIME values in 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS' format, but allows you to assign values to DATETIME columns using either strings or numbers.
TIMESTAMP[(M)]
A timestamp. The range is '1970-01-01 00:00:00' to partway through the year 2037.
A TIMESTAMP column is useful for recording the date and time of an INSERT or UPDATE operation. The first TIMESTAMP column in a table is automatically set to the date and time of the most recent operation if you don't assign it a value yourself. You can also set any TIMESTAMP column to the current date and time by assigning it a NULL value.
In MySQL 5.0, TIMESTAMP is returned as a string in the format 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS'whose display width is fixed at 19 characters. If you want to obtain the value as a number, you should add +0 to the timestamp column.
TIME
A time. The range is '-838:59:59' to '838:59:59'. MySQL displays TIME values in 'HH:MM:SS' format, but allows you to assign values to TIME columns using either strings or numbers.
YEAR[(2|4)]
A year in two-digit or four-digit format. The default is four-digit format. In four-digit format, the allowable values are 1901 to 2155, and 0000. In two-digit format, the allowable values are 70 to 69, representing years from 1970 to 2069. MySQL displays YEAR values in YYYY format, but allows you to assign values to YEAR columns using either strings or numbers.

11.1.3. Overview of String Types

A summary of the string column types follows. For additional information, see Section 11.4, “String Types”. Column storage requirements are given in Section 11.5, “Column Type Storage Requirements”.

In some cases, MySQL may change a string column to a type different from that given in a CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE statement. See Section 13.1.5.1, “Silent Column Specification Changes”.

MySQL 5.0 string data types include some features that you may not have encountered in working with versions of MySQL prior to 4.1:

Column definitions for many string data types can include a CHARACTER SET attribute to specify the character set and, optionally, a collation. (CHARSET is a synonym for CHARACTER SET.) These attributes apply to CHAR, VARCHAR, the TEXT types, ENUM, and SET. For example:
```
CREATE TABLE t
(
    c1 CHAR(20) CHARACTER SET utf8,
    c2 CHAR(20) CHARACTER SET latin1 COLLATE latin1_bin
);
```
This table definition creates a column named c1 that has a character set of utf8 with the default collation for that character set, and a column named c2 that has a character set of latin1 and the binary collation for the character set. The binary collation is not case sensitive.
MySQL 5.0 interprets length specifications in character column definitions in character units. (Some earlier MySQL versions interpreted lengths in bytes.)
For CHAR, VARCHAR, and the TEXT types, the BINARY attribute causes the column to be assigned the binary collation of the column character set.
Character column sorting and comparison are based on the character set assigned to the column. For earalier versions, sorting and comparison are based on the collation of the server character set. For CHAR and VARCHAR columns, you can declare the column with the BINARY attribute to cause sorting and comparison to use the underlying character code values rather then a lexical ordering.

For more about character set support in MySQL 5.0, see Chapter 10, Character Set Support.

[NATIONAL] CHAR(M) [BINARY | ASCII | UNICODE]
A fixed-length string that is always right-padded with spaces to the specified length when stored. M represents the column length. The range of M in MySQL 5.0 is 0 to 255 characters.
Note: Trailing spaces are removed when CHAR values are retrieved.
Before MySQL 5.0.3, a CHAR column with a length specification greater than 255 is converted to the smallest TEXT type that can hold values of the given length. For example, CHAR(500) is converted to TEXT, and CHAR(200000) is converted to MEDIUMTEXT. This is a compatibility feature. However, this conversion causes the column to become a variable-length column, and also affects trailing-space removal.
In MySQL 5.0.3 and later, if you attempt to set the length of a CHAR greater than 255, the CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE statement in which this is done fails with an error:
```
mysql> CREATE TABLE c1 (col1 INT, col2 CHAR(500));
ERROR 1074 (42000): Column length too big for column 'col' (max = 255); use BLOB or TEXT instead
mysql> SHOW CREATE TABLE c1;
ERROR 1146 (42S02): Table 'test.c1' doesn't exist
```
CHAR is shorthand for CHARACTER. NATIONAL CHAR (or its equivalent short form, NCHAR) is the standard SQL way to define that a CHAR column should use the default character set. This is the default in MySQL.
The BINARY attribute is shorthand for specifying the binary collation of the column character set. Sorting and comparison is based on numeric character values.
The column type CHAR BYTE is an alias for CHAR BINARY. This is a compatibility feature.
The ASCII attribute can be specified for CHAR. It assigns the latin1 character set.
The UNICODE attribute can be specified in MySQL 5.0 for CHAR. It assigns the ucs2 character set.
MySQL allows you to create a column of type CHAR(0). This is mainly useful when you have to be compliant with some old applications that depend on the existence of a column but that do not actually use the value. This is also quite nice when you need a column that can take only two values: A CHAR(0) column that is not defined as NOT NULL occupies only one bit and can take only the values NULL and '' (the empty string).
CHAR
This is a synonym for CHAR(1).
[NATIONAL] VARCHAR(M) [BINARY]
A variable-length string. M represents the maximum column length. In MySQL 5.0, the range of M is 0 to 255 before MySQL 5.0.3, and 0 to 65,535 in MySQL 5.0.3 and later. (The maximum actual length of a VARCHAR in MySQL 5.0 is determined by the maximum row size and the character set you use. The maximum effective length starting with MySQL 5.0.3 is 65,532 bytes.)
Note: Before 5.0.3, trailing spaces were removed when VARCHAR values were stored, which differs from the standard SQL specification.
Previus to MySQL 5.0.3, a VARCHAR column with a length specification greater than 255 was converted to the smallest TEXT type that could hold values of the given length. For example, VARCHAR(500) was converted to TEXT, and VARCHAR(200000) was converted to MEDIUMTEXT. This was a compatibility feature. However, this conversion affected trailing-space removal.
VARCHAR is shorthand for CHARACTER VARYING.
In MySQL 5.0, the BINARY attribute is shorthand for specifying the binary collation of the column character set. Sorting and comparison is based on numeric character values.
Starting from MySQL 5.0.3, VARCHAR is stored with a one-byte or two-byte length prefix + data. The length prefix is two bytes if the VARCHAR column is declared with a length greater than 255.
BINARY(M)
The BINARY type is similar to the CHAR type, but stores binary byte strings rather than non-binary character strings.
VARBINARY(M)
The VARBINARY type is similar to the VARCHAR type, but stores binary byte strings rather than non-binary character strings.
TINYBLOB
A BLOB column with a maximum length of 255 (2⁸ – 1) bytes.
TINYTEXT
A TEXT column with a maximum length of 255 (2⁸ – 1) characters.
BLOB[(M)]
A BLOB column with a maximum length of 65,535 (2¹⁶ – 1) bytes.
An optional length M can be given for this type in MySQL 5.0. If this is done, then MySQL will create the column as the smallest BLOB type large enough to hold values of M bytes.
TEXT[(M)]
A TEXT column with a maximum length of 65,535 (2¹⁶ – 1) characters.
In MySQL 5.0, an optional length M can be given. Then MySQL will create the column as the smallest TEXT type large enough to hold values M characters long.
MEDIUMBLOB
A BLOB column with a maximum length of 16,777,215 (2²⁴ – 1) bytes.
MEDIUMTEXT
A TEXT column with a maximum length of 16,777,215 (2²⁴ – 1) characters.
LONGBLOB
A BLOB column with a maximum length of 4,294,967,295 or 4GB (2³² – 1) bytes. The maximum effective (permitted) length of LONGBLOB columns depends on the configured maximum packet size in the client/server protocol and available memory.
LONGTEXT
A TEXT column with a maximum length of 4,294,967,295 or 4GB (2³² – 1) characters. The maximum effective (permitted) length of LONGTEXT columns depends on the configured maximum packet size in the client/server protocol and available memory.
ENUM('value1','value2',...)
An enumeration. A string object that can have only one value, chosen from the list of values 'value1', 'value2', ..., NULL or the special '' error value. An ENUM column can have a maximum of 65,535 distinct values. ENUM values are represented internally as integers.
SET('value1','value2',...)
A set. A string object that can have zero or more values, each of which must be chosen from the list of values 'value1', 'value2', ... A SET column can have a maximum of 64 members. SET values are represented internally as integers.

11.2. Numeric Types

MySQL supports all of the standard SQL numeric data types. These types include the exact numeric data types (INTEGER, SMALLINT, DECIMAL, and NUMERIC), as well as the approximate numeric data types (FLOAT, REAL, and DOUBLE PRECISION). The keyword INT is a synonym for INTEGER, and the keyword DEC is a synonym for DECIMAL.

As of MySQL 5.0.3, a BIT data type is available for storing bit-field values. (Before 5.0.3, MySQL interprets BIT as TINYINT(1).) In MySQL 5.0.3, BIT is supported only for MyISAM. MySQL 5.0.5 extends BIT support to MEMORY, InnoDB, and BDB.

As an extension to the SQL standard, MySQL also supports the integer types TINYINT, MEDIUMINT, and BIGINT. The following table shows the required storage and range for each of the integer types.

Type	Bytes	Minimum Value	Maximum Value
		(Signed/Unsigned)	(Signed/Unsigned)
`TINYINT`	1	`-128`	`127`
		`0`	`255`
`SMALLINT`	2	`-32768`	`32767`
		`0`	`65535`
`MEDIUMINT`	3	`-8388608`	`8388607`
		`0`	`16777215`
`INT`	4	`-2147483648`	`2147483647`
		`0`	`4294967295`
`BIGINT`	8	`-9223372036854775808`	`9223372036854775807`
		`0`	`18446744073709551615`

Another extension is supported by MySQL for optionally specifying the display width of an integer value in parentheses following the base keyword for the type (for example, INT(4)). This optional display width specification is used to left-pad the display of values having a width less than the width specified for the column.

The display width does not constrain the range of values that can be stored in the column, nor the number of digits that are displayed for values having a width exceeding that specified for the column.

When used in conjunction with the optional extension attribute ZEROFILL, the default padding of spaces is replaced with zeros. For example, for a column declared as INT(5) ZEROFILL, a value of 4 is retrieved as 00004. Note that if you store larger values than the display width in an integer column, you may experience problems when MySQL generates temporary tables for some complicated joins, because in these cases MySQL trusts that the data did fit into the original column width.

All integer types can have an optional (non-standard) attribute UNSIGNED. Unsigned values can be used when you want to allow only non-negative numbers in a column and you need a bigger upper numeric range for the column.

Floating-point and fixed-point types also can be UNSIGNED. As with integer types, this attribute prevents negative values from being stored in the column. However, unlike the integer types, the upper range of column values remains the same.

If you specify ZEROFILL for a numeric column, MySQL automatically adds the UNSIGNED attribute to the column.

For floating-point column types, MySQL uses four bytes for single-precision values and eight bytes for double-precision values.

The FLOAT type is used to represent approximate numeric data types. The SQL standard allows an optional specification of the precision (but not the range of the exponent) in bits following the keyword FLOAT in parentheses. The MySQL implementation also supports this optional precision specification, but the precision value is used only to determine storage size. A precision from 0 to 23 results in a four-byte single-precision FLOAT column. A precision from 24 to 53 results in an eight-byte double-precision DOUBLE column.

MySQL allows a non-standard syntax: FLOAT(M,D) or REAL(M,D) or DOUBLE PRECISION(M,D). Here, “(M,D)” means than values are displayed with up to M digits in total, of which D digits may be after the decimal point. For example, a column defined as FLOAT(7,4) will look like -999.9999 when displayed. MySQL performs rounding when storing values, so if you insert 999.00009 into a FLOAT(7,4) column, the approximate result is 999.0001.

MySQL treats DOUBLE as a synonym for DOUBLE PRECISION (a non-standard extension). MySQL also treats REAL as a synonym for DOUBLE PRECISION (a non-standard variation), unless the server SQL mode includes the REAL_AS_FLOAT option.

For maximum portability, code requiring storage of approximate numeric data values should use FLOAT or DOUBLE PRECISION with no specification of precision or number of digits.

The DECIMAL and NUMERIC types are implemented as the same type by MySQL. They are used to store values for which it is important to preserve exact precision, for example with monetary data. When declaring a column of one of these types, the precision and scale can be (and usually is) specified; for example:

salary DECIMAL(5,2)

In this example, 5 is the precision and 2 is the scale. The precision represents the number of significant digits that are stored for values, and the scale represents the number of digits that can be stored following the decimal point.

As of MySQL 5.0.3, DECIMAL and NUMERIC values are stored in binary format. Before 5.0.3, MySQL stores DECIMAL and NUMERIC values as strings, rather than in binary. One character is used for each digit of the value, the decimal point (if the scale is greater than 0), and the ‘-’ sign (for negative numbers). If the scale is 0, DECIMAL and NUMERIC values contain no decimal point or fractional part.

Standard SQL requires that the salary column be able to store any value with five digits and two decimals. In this case, therefore, the range of values that can be stored in the salary column is from -999.99 to 999.99. MySQL enforces this limit as of MySQL 5.0.3. Before 5.0.3, MySQL 5.0 varied from this limit in that, on the positive end of the range, the column could actually store numbers up to 9999.99. (For positive numbers, MySQL 5.0.2 and earlier used the byte reserved for the sign to extend the upper end of the range.)

In standard SQL, the syntax DECIMAL(M) is equivalent to DECIMAL(M,0). Similarly, the syntax DECIMAL is equivalent to DECIMAL(M,0), where the implementation is allowed to decide the value of M. Both of these variant forms of the DECIMAL and NUMERIC data types are supported in MySQL 5.0. The default value of M is 10.

The maximum number of digits for DECIMAL or NUMERIC is 65 (64 from MySQL 5.0.3 to 5.0.5). Before MySQL 5.0.3, the maximum range of DECIMAL and NUMERIC values is the same as for DOUBLE, but the actual range for a given DECIMAL or NUMERIC column can be constrained by the precision or scale for a given column. When such a column is assigned a value with more digits following the decimal point than are allowed by the specified scale, the value is converted to that scale. (The precise behavior is operating system-specific, but generally the effect is truncation to the allowable number of digits.)

As of MySQL 5.0.3, the BIT data type can be used to store bit-field values. A type of BIT(M) allows for storage of M-bit values. M can range from 1 to 64.

To specify bit values, b'value' notation can be used. value is a binary value written using zeroes and ones. For example, b'111' and b'100000000' represent 7 and 128, respectively. See Section 9.1.5, “Bit-Field Values”.

If you assign a value to a BIT(M) column that is less than M bits long, the value is padded on the left with zeroes. For example, assigning a value of b'101' to a BIT(6) column is, in effect, the same as assigning b'000101'.

When asked to store a value in a numeric column that is outside the column type's allowable range, MySQL's behavior depends on the SQL mode in effect at the time. If the mode is not set, MySQL clips the value to the appropriate endpoint of the range and stores the resulting value instead. However, if the mode is set to traditional (“strict mode”), a value that is out of range is rejected with an error, and the insert fails, in accordance with the SQL standard. See Section 5.3.2, “The Server SQL Mode”.

If the INT column is UNSIGNED, the size of the column's range is the same but its endpoints shift up to 0 and 4294967295. If you try to store -9999999999 and 9999999999, the values stored in the column are 0 and 4294967296 in non-strict mode.

When a floating-point or fixed-point column is assigned a value that exceeds the range implied by the specified (or default) precision and scale, MySQL in non-strict mode stores the value representing the corresponding end point of that range.

Conversions that occur due to clipping when MySQL is not operating in strict mode are reported as warnings for ALTER TABLE, LOAD DATA INFILE, UPDATE, and multiple-row INSERT statements. When MySQL is operating in strict mode, these statements fail, and some or all of the values will not be inserted or changed, depending on whether the table is a transactional table and other factors. See Section 5.3.2, “The Server SQL Mode” for details.

11.3. Date and Time Types

11.3.1. The DATETIME, DATE, and TIMESTAMP Types
11.3.2. The TIME Type
11.3.3. The YEAR Type
11.3.4. Y2K Issues and Date Types

The date and time types for representing temporal values are DATETIME, DATE, TIMESTAMP, TIME, and YEAR. Each temporal type has a range of legal values, as well as a “zero” value that may be used when you specify an illegal value that MySQL cannot represent. The TIMESTAMP type has special automatic updating behavior, described later on.

Starting from MySQL 5.0.2, MySQL gives warnings or errors if you try to insert an illegal date. You can get MySQL to accept certain dates, such as '1999-11-31', by using the ALLOW_INVALID_DATES SQL mode. (Before 5.0.2, this mode was the default behavior for MySQL). This is useful when you want to store a “possibly wrong” value which the user has specified (for example, in a web form) in the database for future processing. Under this mode, MySQL verifies only that the month is in the range from 0 to 12 and that the day is in the range from 0 to 31. These ranges are defined to include zero because MySQL allows you to store dates where the day or month and day are zero in a DATE or DATETIME column. This is extremely useful for applications that need to store a birthdate for which you don't know the exact date. In this case, you simply store the date as '1999-00-00' or '1999-01-00'. If you store dates such as these, you should not expect to get correct results for functions such as DATE_SUB() or DATE_ADD that require complete dates. (If you do not want to allow zero in dates, you can use the NO_ZERO_IN_DATE SQL mode).

MySQL also allows you to store '0000-00-00' as a “dummy date” (if you are not using the NO_ZERO_DATE SQL mode). This is in some cases is more convenient (and uses less space in data and index) than using NULL values.

By setting the sql_mode system variable to the appropriate mode values, You can more exactly what kind of dates you want MySQL to support. See Section 5.3.2, “The Server SQL Mode”.

Here are some general considerations to keep in mind when working with date and time types:

MySQL retrieves values for a given date or time type in a standard output format, but it attempts to interpret a variety of formats for input values that you supply (for example, when you specify a value to be assigned to or compared to a date or time type). Only the formats described in the following sections are supported. It is expected that you supply legal values. Unpredictable results may occur if you use values in other formats.
Dates containing two-digit year values are ambiguous because the century is unknown. MySQL interprets two-digit year values using the following rules:
- Year values in the range 70-99 are converted to 1970-1999.
- Year values in the range 00-69 are converted to 2000-2069.
Although MySQL tries to interpret values in several formats, dates always must be given in year-month-day order (for example, '98-09-04'), rather than in the month-day-year or day-month-year orders commonly used elsewhere (for example, '09-04-98', '04-09-98').
MySQL automatically converts a date or time type value to a number if the value is used in a numeric context and vice versa.
When MySQL encounters a value for a date or time type that is out of range or otherwise illegal for the type (as described at the beginning of this section), it converts the value to the “zero” value for that type. The exception is that out-of-range TIME values are clipped to the appropriate endpoint of the TIME range.
The following table shows the format of the “zero” value for each type. Note that the use of these values produces warnings if the NO_ZERO_DATE SQL mode is enabled.
Column Type “Zero” Value
DATETIME '0000-00-00 00:00:00'
DATE '0000-00-00'
TIMESTAMP 00000000000000
TIME '00:00:00'
YEAR 0000
The “zero” values are special, but you can store or refer to them explicitly using the values shown in the table. You can also do this using the values '0' or 0, which are easier to write.
“Zero” date or time values used through MyODBC are converted automatically to NULL in MyODBC 2.50.12 and above, because ODBC cannot handle such values.

11.3.1. The `DATETIME`, `DATE`, and `TIMESTAMP` Types

11.3.1.1. TIMESTAMP Properties as of MySQL 4.1

The DATETIME, DATE, and TIMESTAMP types are related. This section describes their characteristics, how they are similar, and how they differ.

The DATETIME type is used when you need values that contain both date and time information. MySQL retrieves and displays DATETIME values in 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS' format. The supported range is '1000-01-01 00:00:00' to '9999-12-31 23:59:59'. (“Supported” means that although earlier values might work, there is no guarantee)

The DATE type is used when you need only a date value, without a time part. MySQL retrieves and displays DATE values in 'YYYY-MM-DD' format. The supported range is '1000-01-01' to '9999-12-31'.

The TIMESTAMP column type has varying properties, depending on the MySQL version and the SQL mode the server is running in. These properties are described later in this section.

You can specify DATETIME, DATE, and TIMESTAMP values using any of a common set of formats:

As a string in either 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS' or 'YY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS' format. A “relaxed” syntax is allowed: Any punctuation character may be used as the delimiter between date parts or time parts. For example, '98-12-31 11:30:45', '98.12.31 11+30+45', '98/12/31 11*30*45', and '98@12@31 11^30^45' are equivalent.
As a string in either 'YYYY-MM-DD' or 'YY-MM-DD' format. A “relaxed” syntax is allowed here, too. For example, '98-12-31', '98.12.31', '98/12/31', and '98@12@31' are equivalent.
As a string with no delimiters in either 'YYYYMMDDHHMMSS' or 'YYMMDDHHMMSS' format, provided that the string makes sense as a date. For example, '19970523091528' and '970523091528' are interpreted as '1997-05-23 09:15:28', but '971122129015' is illegal (it has a nonsensical minute part) and becomes '0000-00-00 00:00:00'.
As a string with no delimiters in either 'YYYYMMDD' or 'YYMMDD' format, provided that the string makes sense as a date. For example, '19970523' and '970523' are interpreted as '1997-05-23', but '971332' is illegal (it has nonsensical month and day parts) and becomes '0000-00-00'.
As a number in either YYYYMMDDHHMMSS or YYMMDDHHMMSS format, provided that the number makes sense as a date. For example, 19830905132800 and 830905132800 are interpreted as '1983-09-05 13:28:00'.
As a number in either YYYYMMDD or YYMMDD format, provided that the number makes sense as a date. For example, 19830905 and 830905 are interpreted as '1983-09-05'.
As the result of a function that returns a value that is acceptable in a DATETIME, DATE, or TIMESTAMP context, such as NOW() or CURRENT_DATE.

Illegal DATETIME, DATE, or TIMESTAMP values are converted to the “zero” value of the appropriate type ('0000-00-00 00:00:00', '0000-00-00', or 00000000000000).

For values specified as strings that include date part delimiters, it is not necessary to specify two digits for month or day values that are less than 10. '1979-6-9' is the same as '1979-06-09'. Similarly, for values specified as strings that include time part delimiters, it is not necessary to specify two digits for hour, minute, or second values that are less than 10. '1979-10-30 1:2:3' is the same as '1979-10-30 01:02:03'.

Values specified as numbers should be 6, 8, 12, or 14 digits long. If a number is 8 or 14 digits long, it is assumed to be in YYYYMMDD or YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format and that the year is given by the first 4 digits. If the number is 6 or 12 digits long, it is assumed to be in YYMMDD or YYMMDDHHMMSS format and that the year is given by the first 2 digits. Numbers that are not one of these lengths are interpreted as though padded with leading zeros to the closest length.

Values specified as non-delimited strings are interpreted using their length as given. If the string is 8 or 14 characters long, the year is assumed to be given by the first 4 characters. Otherwise, the year is assumed to be given by the first 2 characters. The string is interpreted from left to right to find year, month, day, hour, minute, and second values, for as many parts as are present in the string. This means you should not use strings that have fewer than 6 characters. For example, if you specify '9903', thinking that represents March, 1999, MySQL inserts a “zero” date value into your table. This is because the year and month values are 99 and 03, but the day part is completely missing, so the value is not a legal date. However, you can explicitly specify a value of zero to represent missing month or day parts. For example, you can use '990300' to insert the value '1999-03-00'.

You can to some extent assign values of one date type to an object of a different date type. However, there may be some alteration of the value or loss of information:

If you assign a DATE value to a DATETIME or TIMESTAMP object, the time part of the resulting value is set to '00:00:00' because the DATE value contains no time information.
If you assign a DATETIME or TIMESTAMP value to a DATE object, the time part of the resulting value is deleted because the DATE type stores no time information.
Remember that although DATETIME, DATE, and TIMESTAMP values all can be specified using the same set of formats, the types do not all have the same range of values. For example, TIMESTAMP values cannot be earlier than 1970 or later than 2037. This means that a date such as '1968-01-01', while legal as a DATETIME or DATE value, is not a valid TIMESTAMP value and is converted to 0 if assigned to such an object.

Be aware of certain pitfalls when specifying date values:

The relaxed format allowed for values specified as strings can be deceiving. For example, a value such as '10:11:12' might look like a time value because of the ‘:’ delimiter, but if used in a date context is interpreted as the year '2010-11-12'. The value '10:45:15' is converted to '0000-00-00' because '45' is not a legal month.
In non-strict mode, the MySQL server performs only basic checking on the validity of a date: The ranges for year, month, and day are 1000 to 9999, 00 to 12, and 00 to 31, respectively. Any date containing parts not within these ranges is subject to conversion to '0000-00-00'. Please note that this still allows you to store invalid dates such as '2002-04-31'. To ensure that a date is valid when not using strict mode, you should perform a check in your application.
In strict mode, invalid dates are not accepted, and not converted.
See Section 5.3.2, “The Server SQL Mode” for more information.
Dates containing two-digit year values are ambiguous because the century is unknown. MySQL interprets two-digit year values using the following rules:
- Year values in the range 00-69 are converted to 2000-2069.
- Year values in the range 70-99 are converted to 1970-1999.

11.3.1.1. `TIMESTAMP` Properties as of MySQL 4.1

Note: In older versions of MySQL (prior to 4.1), the properties of the TIMESTAMP column type differed significantly in many ways from what is described in this section. If you need to convert older TIMESTAMP data to work with MySQL 5.0, be sure to see the MySQL 4.1 Reference Manual for details.

In MySQL 5.0, TIMESTAMP columns are displayed in the same format as DATETIME columns. In other words, the display width is fixed at 19 characters, and the format is YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.

The MySQL server can be also be run in MAXDB mode. When the server runs in this mode, TIMESTAMP is identical with DATETIME. That is, if the server is running in MAXDB mode at the time that a table is created, TIMESTAMP columns are created as DATETIME columns. As a result, such columns use DATETIME display format, have the same range of values, and there is no automatic initialization or updating to the current date and time.

To enable MAXDB mode, set the server SQL mode to MAXDB at startup using the --sql-mode=MAXDB server option or by setting the global sql_mode variable at runtime:

mysql> SET GLOBAL sql_mode=MAXDB;

A client can cause the server to run in MAXDB mode for its own connection as follows:

mysql> SET SESSION sql_mode=MAXDB;

As of MySQL 5.0.2, MySQL does not accept timestamp values that include a zero in the day or month column or values that are not a valid date. The sole exception to this rule is the special value '0000-00-00 00:00:00'.

In MYSQL 5.0, you have considerable flexibility in determining when automatic TIMESTAMP initialization and updating occur and which column should have those behaviors:

You can assign the current timestamp as the default value and the auto-update value, as before. But it is possible to have just one automatic behavior or the other, or neither of them. (It is not possible to have one behavior for one column and the other for another column.)
You can specify which TIMESTAMP column to automatically initialize or update to the current date and time. This no longer need be the first TIMESTAMP column.

Note that the information in the following discussion applies to TIMESTAMP columns only for tables not created with MAXDB mode enabled. (As noted above, MAXDB mode causes columns to be created as DATETIME columns.) The rules governing initialisation and updating of TIMESTAMP columns in MySQL 5.0 are as follows:

If a DEFAULT value is specified for the first TIMESTAMP column in a table, it is not ignored. The default can be CURRENT_TIMESTAMP or a constant date and time value.
DEFAULT NULL is the same as DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP for the first TIMESTAMP column. For any other TIMESTAMP column, DEFAULT NULL is treated as DEFAULT 0.
Any single TIMESTAMP column in a table can be set to be the one that is initialized to the current timestamp and/or updated automatically.
In a CREATE TABLE statement, the first TIMESTAMP column can be declared in any of the following ways:
- With both DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP and ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP clauses, the column has the current timestamp for its default value, and is automatically updated.
- With neither DEFAULT nor ON UPDATE clauses, it is the same as DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP.
- With a DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP clause and no ON UPDATE clause, the column has the current timestamp for its default value but is not automatically updated.
- With no DEFAULT clause and with an ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP clause, the column has a default of 0 and is automatically updated.
- With a constant DEFAULT value, the column has the given default. If the column has an ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP clause, it is automatically updated, otherwise not.
In other words, you can use the current timestamp for both the initial value and the auto-update value, or either one, or neither. (For example, you can specify ON UPDATE to enable auto-update without also having the column auto-initialized.)
Any of CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(), or NOW() can be used in the DEFAULT and ON UPDATE clauses. They all have the same effect.
The order of the two attributes does not matter. If both DEFAULT and ON UPDATE are specified for a TIMESTAMP column, either can precede the other.
Example. These statements are equivalent:
```
CREATE TABLE t (ts TIMESTAMP);
CREATE TABLE t (ts TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
                             ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP);
CREATE TABLE t (ts TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
                             DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP);
```
To specify automatic default or updating for a TIMESTAMP column other than the first one, you must suppress the automatic initialization and update behaviors for the first TIMESTAMP column by explicitly assigning it a constant DEFAULT value (for example, DEFAULT 0 or DEFAULT '2003-01-01 00:00:00'). Then, for the other TIMESTAMP column, the rules are the same as for the first TIMESTAMP column, except that you cannot omit both of the DEFAULT and ON UPDATE clauses. If you do so, then no automatic initialization or updating occurs.
Example. These statements are equivalent:
```
CREATE TABLE t (
    ts1 TIMESTAMP DEFAULT 0,
    ts2 TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
                  ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP);
CREATE TABLE t (
    ts1 TIMESTAMP DEFAULT 0,
    ts2 TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
                  DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP);
```

In MySQL 5.0, you can set the current time zone on a per-connection basis, as described in Section 5.10.8, “MySQL Server Time Zone Support”. TIMESTAMP values are stored in UTC, being converted from the current time zone for storage, and converted back to the current time zone upon retrieval. As long as the time zone setting remains constant, you get back the same value you store. If you store a TIMESTAMP value, change the time zone and then retrieve the value, it is different than the value you stored. This occurs because the same time zone was not used for conversion in both directions. The current time zone is available as the value of the time_zone system variable.

You can include the NULL attribute in the definition of a TIMESTAMP column to allow the column to contain NULL values. For example:

CREATE TABLE t
(
  ts1 TIMESTAMP NULL DEFAULT NULL,
  ts2 TIMESTAMP NULL DEFAULT 0,
  ts3 TIMESTAMP NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

If the NULL attribute is not specified, setting the column to NULL sets it to the current timestamp. Note that a TIMESTAMP column which allows NULL values will not take on the current timestamp unless either its default value is defined as CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, or either NOW() or CURRENT_TIMESTAMP is inserted into the column. In other words, a TIMESTAMP column defined as NULL will auto-update only if it is created using a definition such as the following:

CREATE TABLE t (ts NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP);

Otherwise - that is, if the TIMESTAMP column is defined using NULL but not using DEFAULT TIMESTAMP, as shown here...

CREATE TABLE t1 (ts NULL DEFAULT NULL);
CREATE TABLE t2 (ts NULL DEFAULT '0000-00-00 00:00:00');

...then you must explicitly insert a value corresponding to the current date and time. For example:

INSERT INTO t1 VALUES (NOW());
INSERT INTO t2 VALUES (CURRENT_TIMESTAMP);

11.3.2. The `TIME` Type

MySQL retrieves and displays TIME values in 'HH:MM:SS' format (or 'HHH:MM:SS' format for large hours values). TIME values may range from '-838:59:59' to '838:59:59'. The reason for which the hours part may be so large is that the TIME type may be used not only to represent a time of day (which must be less than 24 hours), but also elapsed time or a time interval between two events (which may be much greater than 24 hours, or even negative).

You can specify TIME values in a variety of formats:

As a string in 'D HH:MM:SS.fraction' format. You can also use one of the following “relaxed” syntaxes: 'HH:MM:SS.fraction', 'HH:MM:SS', 'HH:MM', 'D HH:MM:SS', 'D HH:MM', 'D HH', or 'SS'. Here D represents days and can have a value from 0 to 34. Note that MySQL does not (yet) store the fraction.
As a string with no delimiters in 'HHMMSS' format, provided that it makes sense as a time. For example, '101112' is understood as '10:11:12', but '109712' is illegal (it has a nonsensical minute part) and becomes '00:00:00'.
As a number in HHMMSS format, provided that it makes sense as a time. For example, 101112 is understood as '10:11:12'. The following alternative formats are also understood: SS, MMSS, HHMMSS, HHMMSS.fraction. Note that MySQL doesn't (yet) store the fraction.
As the result of a function that returns a value that is acceptable in a TIME context, such as CURRENT_TIME.

For TIME values specified as strings that include a time part delimiter, it is not necessary to specify two digits for hours, minutes, or seconds values that are less than 10. '8:3:2' is the same as '08:03:02'.

Be careful about assigning abbreviated values to a TIME column. Without colons, MySQL interprets values using the assumption that the two rightmost digits represent seconds. (MySQL interprets TIME valuesas elapsed time rather than as time of day.) For example, you might think of '1112' and 1112 as meaning '11:12:00' (12 minutes after 11 o'clock), but MySQL interprets them as '00:11:12' (11 minutes, 12 seconds). Similarly, '12' and 12 are interpreted as '00:00:12'. TIME values with colons, by contrast, are always treated as time of the day. That is, '11:12' mean '11:12:00', not '00:11:12'.

Values that lie outside the TIME range but are otherwise legal are clipped to the closest endpoint of the range. For example, '-850:00:00' and '850:00:00' are converted to '-838:59:59' and '838:59:59'.

Illegal TIME values are converted to '00:00:00'. Note that because '00:00:00' is itself a legal TIME value, there is no way to tell, from a value of '00:00:00' stored in a table, whether the original value was specified as '00:00:00' or whether it was illegal.

11.3.3. The `YEAR` Type

The YEAR type is a one-byte type used for representing years.

MySQL retrieves and displays YEAR values in YYYY format. The range is 1901 to 2155.

You can specify YEAR values in a variety of formats:

As a four-digit string in the range '1901' to '2155'.
As a four-digit number in the range 1901 to 2155.
As a two-digit string in the range '00' to '99'. Values in the ranges '00' to '69' and '70' to '99' are converted to YEAR values in the ranges 2000 to 2069 and 1970 to 1999.
As a two-digit number in the range 1 to 99. Values in the ranges 1 to 69 and 70 to 99 are converted to YEAR values in the ranges 2001 to 2069 and 1970 to 1999. Note that the range for two-digit numbers is slightly different from the range for two-digit strings, because you cannot specify zero directly as a number and have it be interpreted as 2000. You must specify it as a string '0' or '00' or it is interpreted as 0000.
As the result of a function that returns a value that is acceptable in a YEAR context, such as NOW().

Illegal YEAR values are converted to 0000.

11.3.4. Y2K Issues and Date Types

MySQL itself is year 2000 (Y2K) safe (see Section 1.4.5, “Year 2000 Compliance”), but input values presented to MySQL may not be. Any input containing two-digit year values is ambiguous, because the century is unknown. Such values must be interpreted into four-digit form because MySQL stores years internally using four digits.

For DATETIME, DATE, TIMESTAMP, and YEAR types, MySQL interprets dates with ambiguous year values using the following rules:

Year values in the range 00-69 are converted to 2000-2069.
Year values in the range 70-99 are converted to 1970-1999.

Remember that these rules provide only reasonable guesses as to what your data values mean. If the heuristics used by MySQL do not produce the correct values, you should provide unambiguous input containing four-digit year values.

ORDER BY properly sorts TIMESTAMP or YEAR values that have two-digit years.

Some functions like MIN() and MAX() convert a TIMESTAMP or YEAR to a number. This means that a value with a two-digit year does not work properly with these functions. The fix in this case is to convert the TIMESTAMP or YEAR to four-digit year format or use something like MIN(DATE_ADD(timestamp,INTERVAL 0 DAYS)).

11.4. String Types

11.4.1. The CHAR and VARCHAR Types
11.4.2. The BINARY and VARBINARY Types
11.4.3. The BLOB and TEXT Types
11.4.4. The ENUM Type
11.4.5. The SET Type

The string types are CHAR, VARCHAR, BINARY, VARBINARY, BLOB, TEXT, ENUM, and SET. This section describes how these types work and how to use them in your queries.

11.4.1. The `CHAR` and `VARCHAR` Types

The CHAR and VARCHAR types are similar, but differ in the way they are stored and retrieved. As of MySQL 5.0.3, they also differ in maximum length and in whether trailing spaces are retained.

The CHAR and VARCHAR types are declared with a length that indicates the maximum number of characters you want to store. For example, CHAR(30) can hold up to 30 characters.

The length of a CHAR column is fixed to the length that you declare when you create the table. The length can be any value from 0 to 255. When CHAR values are stored, they are right-padded with spaces to the specified length. When CHAR values are retrieved, trailing spaces are removed. No lettercase conversion takes place during storage or retrieval.

Values in VARCHAR columns are variable-length strings. In MySQL 5.0, the length can be specified as a value from 0 to 255 before MySQL 5.0.3, and 0 to 65,535 in 5.0.3 and later versions. (The maximum effective length of a VARCHAR in MySQL 5.0 is determined by the maximum row size and the character set used. The maximum length overall is 65,532 bytes.)

In contrast to CHAR, VARCHAR values are stored using only as many characters as are needed, plus one byte to record the length (two bytes for columns that are declared with a length longer than 255).

VARCHAR values are not padded when they are stored. Handling of trailing spaces is version-dependent. As of MySQL 5.0.3, trailing spaces are retained when values are stored and retrieved, in conformance with standard SQL. Before MySQL 5.0.3, trailing spaces are removed from values when they are stored into a VARCHAR column; this means that the spaces also are absent from retrieved values.

If you assign a value to a CHAR or VARCHAR column that exceeds the column's maximum length, the value is truncated to fit. If the truncated characters are not spaces, a warning is generated. For truncation of non-space characters, you can cause an error to occur (rather than a warning) and suppress insertion of the value by using strict SQL mode. See Section 5.3.2, “The Server SQL Mode”.

Before MySQL 5.0.3, if you need a data type for which trailing spaces are not removed, consider using a BLOB or TEXT type. Also, if you want to store binary values such as results from an encryption or compression function that might contain arbitrary byte values, use a BLOB column rather than a CHAR or VARCHAR column, to avoid potential problems with trailing space removal that would change data values.

The following table illustrates the differences between CHAR and VARCHAR by showing the result of storing various string values into CHAR(4) and VARCHAR(4) columns:

Value	`CHAR(4)`	Storage Required	`VARCHAR(4)`	Storage Required
`''`	`' '`	4 bytes	`''`	1 byte
`'ab'`	`'ab '`	4 bytes	`'ab '`	3 bytes
`'abcd'`	`'abcd'`	4 bytes	`'abcd'`	5 bytes
`'abcdefgh'`	`'abcd'`	4 bytes	`'abcd'`	5 bytes

Note that the values shown as stored in the last row of the table apply only when not using strict mode; if MySQL is running in strict mode, values that exceed the column length are not stored, and an error results.

In MySQL 5.0, the values retrieved from the CHAR(4) and VARCHAR(4) columns are not always the same, because trailing spaces are removed from CHAR columns upon retrieval. This difference is illustrated by the following example:

mysql> CREATE TABLE vc (v VARCHAR(4), c CHAR(4));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.02 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO vc VALUES ('ab  ', 'ab  ');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT CONCAT(v, '+'), CONCAT(c, '+') FROM vc;
+----------------+----------------+
| CONCAT(v, '+') | CONCAT(c, '+') |
+----------------+----------------+
| ab  +          | ab+            |
+----------------+----------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

In MySQL 5.0, values in CHAR and VARCHAR columns are sorted and compared according to the character set collation assigned to the column.

Note that all MySQL collations are of type PADSPACE. This means that all CHAR and VARCHAR values in MySQL are compared without regard to any trailing spaces. For example:

mysql> CREATE TABLE names (myname CHAR(10), yourname VARCHAR(10));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.09 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO names VALUES ('Monty ', 'Monty ');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT myname = 'Monty  ', yourname = 'Monty  ' FROM names;
+--------------------+----------------------+
| myname = 'Monty  ' | yourname = 'Monty  ' |
+--------------------+----------------------+
|                  1 |                    1 |
+--------------------+----------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Note that this is true for all MySQL versions, and it makes no difference whether your version trims trailing spaces from VARCHAR values before storing them. Nor does the server SQL mode make any difference in this regard.

For those cases where trailing pad characters are stripped or comparisons ignore them, if a column has an index that requires unique values, inserting into the column values that differ only in number of trailing pad characters will result in a duplicate-key error.

CHAR BYTE is an alias for CHAR BINARY. This is a compatibility feature.

The ASCII attribute assigns the latin1 character set to a CHAR column. The UNICODE attribute assigns the ucs2 character set.

11.4.2. The `BINARY` and `VARBINARY` Types

The BINARY and VARBINARY types are similar to CHAR and VARCHAR, except that they contain binary strings rather than non-binary strings. That is, they contain byte strings rather than character strings. This means that they have no character set, and sorting and comparison is based on the numeric values of the bytes in column values.

The allowable maximum length is the same for BINARY and VARBINARY as it is for CHAR and VARCHAR, except that the length for BINARY and VARBINARY is a length in bytes rather than in characters.

In MySQL 5.0, the BINARY and VARBINARY data types are distinct from the CHAR BINARY and VARCHAR BINARY data types. For the latter types, the BINARY attribute does not cause the column to be treated as a binary string column. Instead, it causes the binary collation for the column character set to be used, and the column itself contains non-binary character strings rather than binary byte strings. For example CHAR(5) BINARY is treated as CHAR(5) CHARACTER SET latin1 COLLATE latin1_bin, assuming that the default character set is latin1. This differs from BINARY(5), which stores 5-bytes binary strings that have no character set or collation.

When BINARY values are stored, they are right-padded with the pad value to the specified length. The pad value and how it is handled is version specific:

As of MySQL 5.0.15, the pad value is 0x00 (the zero byte). Values are right-padded with 0x00 on insert, and no trailing bytes are removed on select. All bytes are significant in comparisons, including ORDER BY and DISTINCT operations. 0x00 bytes and spaces are different in comparisons, with 0x00 < space.
Example: For a BINARY(3) column, 'a ' becomes 'a \0' when inserted. 'a\0' becomes 'a\0\0' when inserted. Both inserted values remain unchanged when selected.
Before MySQL 5.0.15, the pad value is space. Values are right-padded with space on insert, and trailing spaces are removed on select. Trailing spaces are ignored in comparisons, including ORDER BY and DISTINCT operations. 0x00 bytes and spaces are different in comparisons, with 0x00 < space.
Example: For a BINARY(3) column, 'a ' becomes 'a ' when inserted and 'a' when selected. 'a\0' becomes 'a\0 ' when inserted and 'a\0' when selected.

For VARBINARY, there is no padding on insert and no bytes are stripped on select. All bytes are significant in comparisons, including ORDER BY and DISTINCT operations. 0x00 bytes and spaces are different in comparisons, with 0x00 < space. (Exceptions: Before MySQL 5.0.3, trailing spaces are removed when values are stored. Before MySQL 5.0.15, trailing 0x00 bytes are removed for ORDER BY operations.)

For those cases where trailing pad bytes are stripped or comparisons ignore them, if a column has an index that requires unique values, inserting into the column values that differ only in number of trailing pad bytes will result in a duplicate-key error.

You should consider the preceding padding and stripping characteristics carefully if you plan to use these data types for storing binary data and you require that the value retrieved be exactly the same as the value stored. The following example illustrates how 0x00-padding of BINARY values affects column value comparisons:

mysql> CREATE TABLE t (c BINARY(3));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO t SET c = 'a';
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec)

mysql> SELECT HEX(c), c = 'a', c = 'a\0\0' from t;
+--------+---------+-------------+
| HEX(c) | c = 'a' | c = 'a\0\0' |
+--------+---------+-------------+
| 610000 |       0 |           1 |
+--------+---------+-------------+
1 row in set (0.09 sec)

If the value retrieved must be the same as the value specified for storage with no padding, it might be preferable to use one of the BLOB data types instead.

MySQL may silently change the type of a BINARY or VARBINARY column at table creation time. See Section 13.1.5.1, “Silent Column Specification Changes”.

11.4.3. The `BLOB` and `TEXT` Types

A BLOB is a binary large object that can hold a variable amount of data. The four BLOB types are TINYBLOB, BLOB, MEDIUMBLOB, and LONGBLOB. These differ only in the maximum length of the values they can hold.

The four TEXT types are TINYTEXT, TEXT, MEDIUMTEXT, and LONGTEXT. These correspond to the four BLOB types and have the same maximum lengths and storage requirements.

See Section 11.5, “Column Type Storage Requirements”.

In MySQL 5.0, BLOB columns are treated as binary strings (byte strings). TEXT columns are treated as non-binary strings (character strings). BLOB columns have no character set, and sorting and comparison is based on the numeric values of the bytes in column values. TEXT columns have a character set, and values are sorted and compared based on the collation of the character set.

No lettercase conversion for TEXT or BLOB columns takes place during storage or retrieval.

When not running in strict mode, if you assign a value to a BLOB or TEXT column that exceeds the column type's maximum length, the value is truncated to fit. If the truncated characters are not spaces, a warning is generated. You can cause an error to occur and the value to be rejected rather than to be truncated with awarning by using strict SQL mode. See Section 5.3.2, “The Server SQL Mode”.

In most respects, you can regard a BLOB column as a VARBINARY column that can be as large as you like. Similarly, you can regard a TEXT column as a VARCHAR column. BLOB and TEXT differ from VARBINARY and VARCHAR in the following ways::

There is no trailing-space removal for BLOB and TEXT columns when values are stored or retrieved. Before MySQL 5.0.3, this differs from VARBINARY and VARCHAR, for which trailing spaces are removed when values are stored.
Note that TEXT is on comparison space extended to fit the compared object, exactly like CHAR and VARCHAR.
For indexes on BLOB and TEXT columns, you must specify an index prefix length. For CHAR and VARCHAR, a prefix length is optional. See Section 7.4.3, “Column Indexes”.
BLOB and TEXT columns cannot have DEFAULT values.

In MySQL 5.0, LONG and LONG VARCHAR map to the MEDIUMTEXT data type. This is a compatibility feature. If you use the BINARY attribute with a TEXT column type, the column is assigned the binary collation of the column character set.

MySQL Connector/ODBC defines BLOB values as LONGVARBINARY and TEXT values as LONGVARCHAR.

Because BLOB and TEXT values may be extremely long, you may encounter some constraints in using them:

Only the first max_sort_length bytes of the column are used when sorting. The default value of max_sort_length is 1024; this value can be changed using the --max_sort_length option when starting the mysqld server. See Section 5.3.3, “Server System Variables”.
You can make more bytes significant in sorting or grouping by increasing the value of max_sort_length at runtime. Any client can change the value of its session max_sort_length variable:
```
mysql> SET max_sort_length = 2000;
mysql> SELECT id, comment FROM tbl_name
    -> ORDER BY comment;
```
Another way to use GROUP BY or ORDER BY on a BLOB or TEXT column containing long values when you want more than max_sort_length bytes to be significant is to convert the column value into a fixed-length object. The standard way to do this is with the SUBSTRING function. For example, the following statement causes 2000 bytes of the comment column to be taken into account for sorting:
```
mysql> SELECT id, SUBSTRING(comment,1,2000) FROM tbl_name
    -> ORDER BY SUBSTRING(comment,1,2000);
```
The maximum size of a BLOB or TEXT object is determined by its type, but the largest value you actually can transmit between the client and server is determined by the amount of available memory and the size of the communications buffers. You can change the message buffer size by changing the value of the max_allowed_packet variable, but you must do so for both the server and your client program. For example, both mysql and mysqldump allow you to change the client-side max_allowed_packet value. See Section 7.5.2, “Tuning Server Parameters”, Section 8.3, “mysql — The MySQL Command-Line Tool”, and Section 8.8, “mysqldump — A Database Backup Program”.

Each BLOB or TEXT value is represented internally by a separately allocated object. This is in contrast to all other column types, for which storage is allocated once per column when the table is opened.

11.4.4. The `ENUM` Type

An ENUM is a string object with a value chosen from a list of allowed values that are enumerated explicitly in the column specification at table creation time.

The value may also be the empty string ('') or NULL under certain circumstances:

If you insert an invalid value into an ENUM (that is, a string not present in the list of allowed values), the empty string is inserted instead as a special error value. This string can be distinguished from a “normal” empty string by the fact that this string has the numerical value 0. More about this later.
If an ENUM column is declared to allow NULL, the NULL value is a legal value for the column, and the default value is NULL. If an ENUM column is declared NOT NULL, its default value is the first element of the list of allowed values.

Each enumeration value has an index:

Values from the list of allowable elements in the column specification are numbered beginning with 1.
The index value of the empty string error value is 0. This means that you can use the following SELECT statement to find rows into which invalid ENUM values were assigned:
```
mysql> SELECT * FROM tbl_name WHERE enum_col=0;
```
The index of the NULL value is NULL.

For example, a column specified as ENUM('one', 'two', 'three') can have any of the values shown here. The index of each value is also shown:

Value	Index
`NULL`	`NULL`
`''`	0
`'one'`	1
`'two'`	2
`'three'`	3

An enumeration can have a maximum of 65,535 elements.

Trailing spaces are automatically deleted from ENUM member values when the table is created.

When retrieved, values stored into an ENUM column are displayed using the lettercase that was used in the column definition. In MySQL 5.0, ENUM columns can be assigned a character set and collation. For binary or case-sensitive collations, lettercase is taken into account when assigning values to the column.

If you retrieve an ENUM value in a numeric context, the column value's index is returned. For example, you can retrieve numeric values from an ENUM column like this:

mysql> SELECT enum_col+0 FROM tbl_name;

If you store a number into an ENUM column, the number is treated as an index, and the value stored is the enumeration member with that index. (However, this does not work with LOAD DATA, which treats all input as strings.) It is not advisable to define an ENUM column with enumeration values that look like numbers, because this can easily become confusing. For example, the following column has enumeration members with string values of '0', '1', and '2', but numeric index values of 1, 2, and 3:

numbers ENUM('0','1','2')

ENUM values are sorted according to the order in which the enumeration members were listed in the column specification. (In other words, ENUM values are sorted according to their index numbers.) For example, 'a' sorts before 'b' for ENUM('a', 'b'), but 'b' sorts before 'a' for ENUM('b', 'a'). The empty string sorts before non-empty strings, and NULL values sort before all other enumeration values. To prevent unexpected results, specify the ENUM list in alphabetical order. You can also use GROUP BY CAST(col AS CHAR) or GROUP BY CONCAT(col) to make sure that the column is sorted lexically rather than by index number.

If you want to determine all possible values for an ENUM column, use SHOW COLUMNS FROM tbl_name LIKE enum_col and parse the ENUM definition in the second column of the output.

11.4.5. The `SET` Type

A SET is a string object that can have zero or more values, each of which must be chosen from a list of allowed values specified when the table is created. SET column values that consist of multiple set members are specified with members separated by commas (‘,’). A consequence of this is that SET member values cannot themselves contain commas.

For example, a column specified as SET('one', 'two') NOT NULL can have any of these values:

''
'one'
'two'
'one,two'

A SET can have a maximum of 64 different members.

Trailing spaces are automatically deleted from SET member values when the table is created.

When retrieved, values stored into a SET column are displayed using the lettercase that was used in the column definition. In MySQL 5.0, SET columns can be assigned a character set and collation. For binary or case-sensitive collations, lettercase is taken into account when assigning values to to the column.

MySQL stores SET values numerically, with the low-order bit of the stored value corresponding to the first set member. If you retrieve a SET value in a numeric context, the value retrieved has bits set corresponding to the set members that make up the column value. For example, you can retrieve numeric values from a SET column like this:

mysql> SELECT set_col+0 FROM tbl_name;

If a number is stored into a SET column, the bits that are set in the binary representation of the number determine the set members in the column value. For a column specified as SET('a','b','c','d'), the members have the following decimal and binary values:

`SET` Member	Decimal Value	Binary Value
`'a'`	`1`	`0001`
`'b'`	`2`	`0010`
`'c'`	`4`	`0100`
`'d'`	`8`	`1000`

If you assign a value of 9 to this column, that is 1001 in binary, so the first and fourth SET value members 'a' and 'd' are selected and the resulting value is 'a,d'.

For a value containing more than one SET element, it does not matter what order the elements are listed in when you insert the value. It also does not matter how many times a given element is listed in the value. When the value is retrieved later, each element in the value appears once, with elements listed according to the order in which they were specified at table creation time. For example, suppose a column is specified as SET('a','b','c','d'):

mysql> CREATE TABLE myset (col SET('a', 'b', 'c', 'd'));

and insert the values 'a,d', 'd,a', 'a,d,d', 'a,d,a', and 'd,a,d':

mysql> INSERT INTO myset (col) VALUES 
-> ('a,d'), ('d,a'), ('a,d,a'), ('a,d,d'), ('d,a,d');
Query OK, 5 rows affected (0.01 sec)
Records: 5  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

then all of these values appear as 'a,d' when retrieved:

mysql> SELECT col FROM myset;
+------+
| col  |
+------+
| a,d  |
| a,d  |
| a,d  |
| a,d  |
| a,d  |
+------+
5 rows in set (0.04 sec)

If you set a SET column to an unsupported value, the value is ignored and a warning is issued:

mysql> INSERT INTO myset (col) VALUES ('a,d,d,s');
Query OK, 1 row affected, 1 warning (0.03 sec)

mysql> SHOW WARNINGS;
+---------+------+------------------------------------------+
| Level   | Code | Message                                  |
+---------+------+------------------------------------------+
| Warning | 1265 | Data truncated for column 'col' at row 1 |
+---------+------+------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.04 sec)

mysql> SELECT col FROM myset;
+------+
| col  |
+------+
| a,d  |
| a,d  |
| a,d  |
| a,d  |
| a,d  |
| a,d  |
+------+
6 rows in set (0.01 sec)

SET values are sorted numerically. NULL values sort before non-NULL SET values.

Normally, you search for SET values using the FIND_IN_SET() function or the LIKE operator:

mysql> SELECT * FROM tbl_name WHERE FIND_IN_SET('value',set_col)>0;
mysql> SELECT * FROM tbl_name WHERE set_col LIKE '%value%';

The first statement finds rows where set_col contains the value set member. The second is similar, but not the same: It finds rows where set_col contains value anywhere, even as a substring of another set member.

The following statements also are legal:

mysql> SELECT * FROM tbl_name WHERE set_col & 1;
mysql> SELECT * FROM tbl_name WHERE set_col = 'val1,val2';

The first of these statements looks for values containing the first set member. The second looks for an exact match. Be careful with comparisons of the second type. Comparing set values to 'val1,val2' returns different results than comparing values to 'val2,val1'. You should specify the values in the same order they are listed in the column definition.

If you want to determine all possible values for a SET column, use SHOW COLUMNS FROM tbl_name LIKE set_col and parse the SET definition in the second column of the output.

11.5. Column Type Storage Requirements

The storage requirements for each of the column types supported by MySQL are listed by category.

The maximum size of a row in a MyISAM table is 65,534 bytes. Each BLOB and TEXT column accounts for only five to nine bytes toward this size.

If a MyISAM table includes any variable-length column types, the record format is also variable length. When a table is created, MySQL may, under certain conditions, change a column from a variable-length type to a fixed-length type or vice versa. See Section 13.1.5.1, “Silent Column Specification Changes” for more information.

Storage Requirements for Numeric Types

Column Type	Storage Required
`TINYINT`	1 byte
`SMALLINT`	2 bytes
`MEDIUMINT`	3 bytes
`INT`, `INTEGER`	4 bytes
`BIGINT`	8 bytes
`FLOAT(p)`	4 bytes if 0 <= `p` <= 24, 8 bytes if 25 <= `p` <= 53
`FLOAT`	4 bytes
`DOUBLE [PRECISION]`, item `REAL`	8 bytes
`DECIMAL(M,D)`, `NUMERIC(M,D)`	Varies; see following discussion
`BIT(M)`	approximately (`M`+7)/8 bytes

The storage requirements for DECIMAL (and NUMERIC) are version-specific:

As of MySQL 5.0.3, values for DECIMAL columns are represented using a binary format that packs nine decimal (base 10) digits into four bytes. Storage for the integer and fractional parts of each value are determined separately. Each multiple of nine digits requires four bytes, and the “leftover” digits require some fraction of four bytes. The storage required for excess digits is given by the following table:

Leftover	Number
Digits	of Bytes
0	0
1	1
2	1
3	2
4	2
5	3
6	3
7	4
8	4
9	4

Before MySQL 5.0.3, DECIMAL columns are represented as strings and storage requirements are: M+2 bytes if D > 0, M+1 bytes if D = 0 (D+2, if M < D)

Storage Requirements for Date and Time Types

Column Type	Storage Required
`DATE`	3 bytes
`DATETIME`	8 bytes
`TIMESTAMP`	4 bytes
`TIME`	3 bytes
`YEAR`	1 byte

Storage Requirements for String Types

Column Type	Storage Required
`CHAR(M)`	`M` bytes, 0 `<= M <=` 255
`VARCHAR(M)`	`L`+1 bytes, where `L <= M` and 0 `<= M <=` 65535 (see note below). This was 0 `<= M <=` 255 before MySQL 5.0.3.
`BINARY(M)`	`M` bytes, 0 `<= M <=` 255
`VARBINARY(M)`	`L`+1 bytes, where `L <= M` and 0 `<= M <=` 255
`TINYBLOB`, `TINYTEXT`	`L`+1 byte, where `L` < 2⁸
`BLOB`, `TEXT`	`L`+2 bytes, where `L` < 2¹⁶
`MEDIUMBLOB`, `MEDIUMTEXT`	`L`+3 bytes, where `L` < 2²⁴
`LONGBLOB`, `LONGTEXT`	`L`+4 bytes, where `L` < 2³²
`ENUM('value1','value2',...)`	1 or 2 bytes, depending on the number of enumeration values (65,535 values maximum)
`SET('value1','value2',...)`	1, 2, 3, 4, or 8 bytes, depending on the number of set members (64 members maximum)

VARCHAR and the BLOB and TEXT types are variable-length types. For each, the storage requirements depend on the actual length of column values (represented by L in the preceding table), rather than on the type's maximum possible size. For example, a VARCHAR(10) column can hold a string with a maximum length of 10. The actual storage required is the length of the string (L), plus 1 byte to record the length of the string. For the string 'abcd', L is 4 and the storage requirement is 5 bytes.

For the CHAR, VARCHAR, and TEXT types, the values L and M in the preceding table should be interpreted as number of characters in MySQL 5.0, and lengths for these types in column specifications indicate the number of characters. For example, to store a TINYTEXT value requires L characters + 1 byte.

Note: In MySQL 5.0.3 and later, the effective maximum length for a VARCHAR column is 65,532 characters.

As of MySQL 5.0.3, the NDBCLUSTER engine supports only fixed-width columns. This means that a VARCHAR column from a table in a MySQL Cluster will behave almost as if it were of type CHAR (except that each record still has one extra byte overhead). For example, in a Cluster table, each record in a column declared as VARCHAR(100) will take up 101 bytes for storage, regardless of the length of the string actually stored in any given record.

The BLOB and TEXT types require 1, 2, 3, or 4 bytes to record the length of the column value, depending on the maximum possible length of the type. See Section 11.4.3, “The BLOB and TEXT Types”.

TEXT and BLOB columns are implemented differently in the NDB Cluster storage engine, wherein each record in a TEXT column is made up of two separate parts. One of these is of fixed size (256 bytes), and is actually stored in the original table. The other consists of any data in excess of 256 bytes, which stored in a hidden table. The records in this second table are always 2,000 bytes long. This means that the size of a TEXT column is 256 if size <= 256 (where size represents the size of the record); otherwise, the size is 256 + size + (2000 – (size – 256) % 2000).

The size of an ENUM object is determined by the number of different enumeration values. One byte is used for enumerations with up to 255 possible values. Two bytes are used for enumerations having between 256 and 65,535 possible values. See Section 11.4.4, “The ENUM Type”.

The size of a SET object is determined by the number of different set members. If the set size is N, the object occupies (N+7)/8 bytes, rounded up to 1, 2, 3, 4, or 8 bytes. A SET can have a maximum of 64 members. See Section 11.4.5, “The SET Type”.

11.6. Choosing the Right Type for a Column

For optimum storage, you should try to use the most precise type in all cases. For example, if an integer column is used for values in the range from 1 to 99999, then MEDIUMINT UNSIGNED is the best type. Of the types that represent all the required values, this type uses the least amount of storage.

Tables created in MySQL 5.0.3 and above uses a a new storage format for DECIMAL columns. All basic calculation (+,-,*,/) with DECIMAL columns are done with precision of 65 decimal (base 10) digits. See Section 11.1.1, “Overview of Numeric Types”.

Calculations on DECIMAL values are performed using double-precision operations. If accuracy is not too important or if speed is the highest priority, the DOUBLE type may be good enough. For high precision, you can always convert to a fixed-point type stored in a BIGINT. This allows you to do all calculations with 64-bit integers, then convert results back to floating-point values as necessary.

11.7. Using Column Types from Other Database Engines

To facilitate the use of code written for SQL implementations from other vendors, MySQL maps column types as shown in the following table. These mappings make it easier to import table definitions from other database engines into MySQL:

Other Vendor Type	MySQL Type
`BOOL`,	`TINYINT`
`BOOLEAN`	`TINYINT`
`CHAR VARYING(M)`	`VARCHAR(M)`
`DEC`	`DECIMAL`
`FIXED`	`DECIMAL`
`FLOAT4`	`FLOAT`
`FLOAT8`	`DOUBLE`
`INT1`	`TINYINT`
`INT2`	`SMALLINT`
`INT3`	`MEDIUMINT`
`INT4`	`INT`
`INT8`	`BIGINT`
`LONG VARBINARY`	`MEDIUMBLOB`
`LONG VARCHAR`	`MEDIUMTEXT`
`LONG`	`MEDIUMTEXT`
`MIDDLEINT`	`MEDIUMINT`
`NUMERIC`	`DECIMAL`

Column type mapping occurs at table creation time, after which the original type specifications are discarded. If you create a table with types used by other vendors and then issue a DESCRIBE tbl_name statement, MySQL reports the table structure using the equivalent MySQL types. For example:

mysql> CREATE TABLE t (a BOOL, b FLOAT8, c LONG, d NUMERIC);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.08 sec)

mysql> DESCRIBE t;
+-------+---------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field | Type          | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-------+---------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| a     | tinyint(1)    | YES  |     | NULL    |       |
| b     | double        | YES  |     | NULL    |       |
| c     | mediumtext    | YES  |     | NULL    |       |
| d     | decimal(10,0) | YES  |     | NULL    |       |
+-------+---------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Prev		Next
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Column Type	“Zero” Value
`DATETIME`	`'0000-00-00 00:00:00'`
`DATE`	`'0000-00-00'`
`TIMESTAMP`	`00000000000000`
`TIME`	`'00:00:00'`
`YEAR`	`0000`