How Much Memory Does a Database Table Really Need? Optimize Columns and Storage
This article explains how a table's memory footprint equals row count times row size and shows why careful data‑type selection—using CHAR over VARCHAR for fixed‑length fields and separating article metadata from content—can significantly reduce memory usage.
Memory required for a table in memory equals the number of rows multiplied by the size of a single row.
Therefore, choosing column data types carefully is essential.
For fixed‑length columns, use CHAR instead of VARCHAR , because VARCHAR adds extra bytes to store the length of each value.
For tables that store articles, keep article metadata in one table and the article body in a separate table; metadata is accessed frequently while the body is large and accessed rarely, so separating them reduces memory consumption.
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