title: VARCHAR vs TEXT in MySQL
body: <p>I have two fields: one to store an <code>excerpt</code> with a max size of 500 characters, and another to store a <code>description</code> with a max size of 10,000 characters.</p>
  
  <p>What data types should I use, <code>TEXT</code> or <code>VARCHAR</code>? And why?</p>
  
  <p>After MySQL 5.0.3 VARCHAR accepts ~65000 characters. But this does not tell why I should use one type and or the other.</p>
  
  <p>I'm reasoning that I should use <code>VARCHAR</code> for the excerpt because I can assign a size limit, and <code>TEXT</code> for the <code>description</code> field as it's larger.</p>