title: MySql Tinytext vs Varchar vs Char
body: <p>Building a system that has the potential to get hammered pretty hard with hits and traffic.
  It's a typical Apache/PHP/MySql setup.</p>
  
  <p>Have build plenty of systems before, but never had a scenario where I really had to make decisions regarding potential scalability of this size. I have dozens of questions regarding building a system of this magniture, but for this particular question, I am trying to decide on what to use as the data type.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Here is the 100ft view:</strong></p>
  
  <p>We have a table which (among other things) has a <strong>description</strong> field. We have decided to limit it to <strong>255 characters</strong>. It <strong>will be searchable</strong> (<em>ie: show me all entries with description that contains ...</em>). Problem: this table is likely to have <strong>millions upon millions of entries</strong> at some point (<em>or so we think</em>).</p>
  
  <p>I have not yet figured out the strategy for the search (the MySql LIKE operator is likely to be slow and/or a hog I am guessing for such a large # records), but thats for another SO question. For this question, I am wondering <strong>what the pro's and cons are to creating this field as a tinytext, varchar, and char</strong>.</p>
  
  <p>I am <em>not</em> a database expert, so any and all commentary is helpful. Thanks -</p>