RE: [PHP] Mysql/php database performance question

I see what you mean Khalid, but I only retrieve 1 entry at the time, so exploding wouldn't be the biggest problem I suppose. Furthermore, if I use char columns, and some of those columns have lots of empty cells, isn't it a waste of space/lookup-time? So I think I have to reformulate the question: which is better 5 varchar columns of size 50 or 1 varchar column of size 250 (regardless of parsing). Thanks, Simon --- the thing that may make difference in performance (as i think) is whether you make it a fixed -CHAR- or a variable -VARCHAR- it's preferable that you make separate char columns, so that PHP will not have to explode every record! Regards, Khalid Al-Kary,