On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 8:51 PM, Bruce Hyatt <brucejhyatt(at)yahoo(dot)com> wrote:
> My inclination when creating tables is to create columns using
> varchar-sizes in increments of 10 or 5 but I suspect there must be
> more-efficient sizes, specifically, values like 16, 32, 64 minus
> header-bits.
>
> - Is this true? Does it really have much impact on storage?
> - How many bits are the headers?
> - How does TOAST factor in?
Believe it or not, specifying the varchar size has no impact on storage
size. So, a varchar and a varchar(2) if both have two characters take the
same storage space.
Toast is described pretty well in the documentation (better than I can
describe it).
Sean