# varchar vs. text

**URL:** <https://forums.percona.com/t/varchar-vs-text/1560>\
**Category:** Other MySQL® Questions\
**Created:** [November 16, 2010, 11:51am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/varchar-vs-text/1560 "2010-11-16T11:51:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![iberkner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@iberkner](https://forums.percona.com/u/iberkner)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 11:51am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/varchar-vs-text/1560/1 "2010-11-16T11:51:40Z")

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I have to add 2 data fields to a table with 500,000+ rows (and growing). The data held in these fields is text and at this time, the max number of characters I’ve found users requiring in these fields is around 800, so a varchar(1000) would work as well as a text field.

The table engine is InnoDB and the data in the fields will never be searched, so no indexing is necessary.

Is there a good reason to go with one field type or the other?