title: Google Places API reference - length/characteristics
body: <p>After searching both Google Documentation and the web, I cannot find what definite characteristics a Places 'reference' has. Mainly the (max) length of a reference so it can be stored in a database.</p>
  
  <p>It seems that trialling these IDs they are always 211 characters (max) of alphanumeric characters including dashes and underscores.</p>
  
  <p>However, as I say I cannot find any official docs on this and I don't want to assume that as I already have encountered an issue where the reference loaded from the database does not work with the Places Details API from Google. (Even though the retrieved reference follows the same characteristics as above).</p>
  
  <p>Thanks for any help!</p>