What does the value 400 in varchar(400) indicate?

Question

Database design

If a column in a table has a varchar(400) data type, does this mean that this column can fit 400 characters, in the specified encoding, or does it mean that 400 bytes can fit?

Answer 1

Capacity 400 characters. Before version 4.1 in bytes.
Found on stackoverflow .
Documentation .

Answer 2

Here ( webonrails ) you can read about one of the pitfalls of misunderstanding characters and bytes in varchar fields.