Confusing in declaring Varchar for unicode when creating table in MYSQL?

Question

I want to store "First name" with max length of 12 characters. If it exceeds, it will be rejected.

So, I create a table with this schema

create table Tb (firstName varchar(12) character set utf8 NOT NULL)

Now if the name is in ASCII, then it will be fine. But what if it's in Japanese or Thai? Each Unicode char takes 3 bytes, so do I need to triple the size like this?

create table Tb (firstName varchar(36) character set utf8 NOT NULL)

But then, if I triple the size like that, then the English users can put a name that is longer than 12 chars. How to solve this issue?

Why don't you validate the input before inserting to the DB? — Andrew T., Sep 23 '14 at 10:13
*How to solve this issue?* - **Is it** really an issue? My full first name has 14 ASCII characters. If I can't fill out my first name in a textfield used for online billing, **that** would be a real issue - when the customer is not able to give you his money. — Daniel W., Sep 23 '14 at 10:39
maybe this helps http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1997540/mysql-varchar-lengths-and-utf-8 — 1010, Sep 23 '14 at 12:23

score -2 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 23 '14 at 10:29

-2

It's always better to use varchar(255) at least when you are not so sure about your field length.

edited Sep 23 '14 at 10:29

Andrew T.

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answered Sep 23 '14 at 10:00

William Francis Gomes

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but then we still not understand how they count the bytes? – Tum Sep 23 '14 at 10:01
Thats why i used AT LEAST. Now its upto you how much you want to give. :) But in general a name should fit in perfectly. – William Francis Gomes Sep 23 '14 at 10:03
You can take a look at this article to get an idea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode – William Francis Gomes Sep 23 '14 at 10:44

Confusing in declaring Varchar for unicode when creating table in MYSQL?

1 Answers1