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  • @Andy, this is interesting because according to idstam, above, you can do full text indexing on VARCHAR. He cited this article, which I'm yet to read: devarticles.com/c/a/MySQL/… Commented Jun 19, 2011 at 19:43
  • Fulltext supported on both column types for MyISAM anyway: Full-text indexes can be used only with MyISAM tables, and can be created only for CHAR, VARCHAR, or TEXT columns. dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/fulltext-search.html Commented Jun 19, 2011 at 19:46
  • @Andy, thanks. I had no idea. So if I wanted to use a Full-text index to allow my users to search description fields, I have to convert my table to MyISAM? Also, if I understood you correctly, LONG VARCHAR, or above 255 characters, is going to behave the same way as TEXT and BLOB? Commented Jun 19, 2011 at 19:53
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    Table conversion has its own disadvantages. Normalising the description field to its own MyISAM table and joining on it will allow simultaneous use of the robust features of InnoDB and the single desirable feature of MyISAM :) Commented Jun 19, 2011 at 19:56
  • @Andy, interesting approach. So much to think about. Everything was really simple until about a15 minutes ago! :) Thank you! Commented Jun 19, 2011 at 20:00