title: Is there a good reason I see VARCHAR(255) used so often (as opposed to another length)?
body: <p>In multiple courses, books, and jobs, I have seen text fields defined as VARCHAR(255) as kind of the default for "shortish" text.  Is there any good reason that a length of 255 is chosen so often, other than being <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/164432/what-real-life-bad-habits-has-programming-given-you/164556#164556">a nice round number</a>?  Is it a holdout from some time in the past when there was a good reason (whether or not it applies today)?</p>
  
  <p>I realize, of course, that a tighter limit would be more ideal, if you somehow know the maximum length of the string.  But if you are using VARCHAR(255) that probably indicates that you don't know the max length, only that it is a "shortish" string.</p>
  
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  <p>Note: I found this question (<a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/143933/varchar255-v-tinyblob-v-tinytext">varchar(255) v tinyblob v tinytext</a>), which says that VARCHAR(<em>n</em>) requires <em>n</em>+1 bytes of storage for <em>n</em>&lt;=255, <em>n</em>+2 bytes of storage for <em>n</em>&gt;255.  Is this the only reason?  That seems kind of arbitrary, since you would only be saving two bytes compared to VARCHAR(256), and you could just as easily save another two bytes by declaring it VARCHAR(253).</p>