Well, that's database dependent -- for Postgres there's no real performance difference: http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/FAQ#What_is_the_difference_between_the_v

Well, that's database dependent -- for Postgres there's no real performance difference: http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/FAQ#What_is_the_difference_between_the_various_character_types.3F http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/FAQ#What_is_the_difference_b... It's CHAR that pads with spaces, not VARCHAR.