Which mysql method is fast?

Question

I am saving some text in database say 1000 characters. But I display only first 200 characters.

Method 1
I could save first 200 characters in one column and the remaining in second column of sql table

Method 2
I can save everything in one column and while displaying I can query for 200 characters

Answer 1

It would be "cleaner" to store everything in 1 column. and you can select only the first 200 characters like this

select substring(your_column, 1, 200) as your_column from your_table

Answer 2

It really is irrelevant, but if you try to optimize, then method 1 is better, as long as you limit your query to that column (or you only query these columns you really need), because doing any substring on server side takes time and resources (times number of requests...). Method 2 is cleaner, but you are optimize for time so method 1.