TEXT vs Varchar : need your advice.

[eluser]John_Betong[/eluser]
 
Nicked from my Reference Manual:

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 is 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).

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It looks to me as though if you decide to use TEXT for storing links then it will occupy a fixed allocated space of 256 bytes. It will be easier to store unknown data sizes to the TEXT field.
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I think it there will be no performance issues only storage size issues. The database is usually zipped when transferring and a bunch of unallocated space zips to a very small size.
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I reckon just go ahead and build your website because the field types can always be changed at a later date.
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