What Are String Data Types? - MySQL FAQs - Introduction to SQL Basics

MySQL supports the following string data types:

• CHAR(n) same as CHARACTER(n) - Fixed width and " " padded characters strings. Default character set is ASCII.
• NCHAR(n) same as NATIONAL CHARACTER(n) - Fixed width and " " padded character strings with UTF8 character set.
• VARCHAR(n) same as CHARACTER VARYING(n) - Variable width character strings. Default character set is ASCII.
• NVARCHAR(n) same as NATIONAL CHARACTER VARYING(n) - Variable width character strings with UTF8 character set.
• BINARY(n) - Fixed width and 0x00 padded byte strings.
• VARBINARY(n) same as BINARY VARYING(n) - Variable width byte string.
• TINYBLOB - BLOB (Binary Large Object) upto 255 bytes.
• BLOB - BLOB (Binary Large Object) upto 64K bytes.
• MEDIUMBLOB - BLOB (Binary Large Object) upto 16M bytes.
• LONGBLOB - BLOB (Binary Large Object) upto 4G bytes.
• TINYTEXT - CLOB (Binary Large Object) upto 255 characters.
• TEXT - CLOB (Binary Large Object) upto 64K characters.
• MEDIUMTEXT - CLOB (Binary Large Object) upto 16M characters.
• LONGTEXT - CLOB (Binary Large Object) upto 4G characters.
• ENUM - An enumeration to hold one entry of some pre-defined strings.
• SET - A set to hold zero or more entries of some pre-defined strings.