> and the SQLite query planner sometimes notes that length when considering data shape
In what situations does that happen? RBS On Thu, Dec 3, 2015 at 12:29 AM, R Smith <rsmith at rsweb.co.za> wrote: > > > On 2015/12/02 6:34 PM, Erwin Kalvelagen wrote: > >> Good morning. >> >> I wrote a little tool to dump certain data sets into a SQLite database. A >> user suggested that I should not use type TEXT but rather type VARCHAR for >> character columns, due to some issue with Excel/VBA. See the comments in: >> >> http://yetanothermathprogrammingconsultant.blogspot.com/2013/10/gdx2sqlite.html >> >> >> I could not find a reference to this using Google. So my question is: Is >> this a known problem? I would like to understand a little bit better what >> this is about. >> > > The reason you are not finding a reference, is because it isn't true. > SQLite (as others have mentioned) is ambivalent to those types - either > will do. > > Personally I use VARCHAR(Len) in table column definitions - simply because > my schema is then directly interchangeable with MySQL/PostGres and the > SQLite query planner sometimes notes that length when considering data > shape - but for data purposes, SQLite doesn't care and neither do any > wrappers I know of. Also, I can't imagine Excel would have an issue, > whether referencing a data object via VB Script or OLE DB table import etc, > I have never seen it matter in Excels 2003 through 2013. > > My guess is your friend probably heard of some peculiarity and then > possibly misheard or misinterpreted it to be related to Varchar vs. Text. > Note that in MySQL/PostGres/MSSQL/Oracle there is a very big difference. > Text (and its sub-types such as mediumtext, longtext etc.) usually is > stored as a kind of character blob while Varchar(n) is more like a string > with a length constraint. > > It's perhaps also prudent to note that in SQLite, Varchar(10) is just a > Text type, and won't actually limit data entries into that field to only 10 > characters. > > Good luck! > Ryan > > _______________________________________________ > sqlite-users mailing list > sqlite-users at mailinglists.sqlite.org > http://mailinglists.sqlite.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sqlite-users >
