I dont usually use MySQL workbench, I am trying to create a table with a text column by choosing TEXT(), however I am not sure what value I should put in between the '()'. If I leave it blank it gives me the error:
The given data type
TEXT()
contains errors and cannot be accepted. The previous value is kept instead.
I can put a number inside the parentheses but I wanted to know how it affects the column.
I could not find any answers online. I know how it affects things such as DATETIME() but not this data type.
Best Answer
In TEXT(M) M is an optional length. From the docs:
So you can use it to specify the maximum number of characters you anticipate for the field.
If you omit the parens - just TEXT - it will default to 65,535. Otherwise, if you supply the parens and a value it will default to the appropriate text type (TINYTEXT, TEXT, MEDIUMTEXT, LONGTEXT).
See here for a comparison with VARCHAR. One difference is that you cannot directly index a TEXT field, it requires a prefix.