What's the difference between TEXT, CHAR, and VARCHAR in CockroachDB?

Question

I see different schemas using TEXT, CHAR, VARCHAR, CHARACTER VARYING, CHAR VARYING to store string data. Which should I use in CockroachDB?

Answer 1

All the types mentioned are equivalent; see the CockroachDB STRING documentation for an exhaustive list.

In CockroachDB, the following are aliases for STRING:

• CHARACTER
• CHAR
• VARCHAR
• TEXT

And the following are aliases for STRING(n):

• CHARACTER(n)
• CHARACTER VARYING(n)
• CHAR(n)
• CHAR VARYING(n)
• VARCHAR(n)

CockroachDB will treat all of these types identically. The canonical name for the type in CockroachDB, however, is STRING, so if you're starting a new application from scratch, you'll reduce confusion by preferring STRING over the other aliases.