When designing a database schema you often have to make decisions on a fields length. Rather then just guess at a number, use the maximum possible value that could conceivably be used for the field. Below is a chart of common database fields such as email address, city, zip code and country name and the maximum possible length value that can be used.
Field Name
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Character Length
</td>
<td>
Example
</td>
email address
<td>
254
</td>
<td>
see RFC5321
</td>
city
<td>
189
</td>
<td>
Longest City Name is Bangkok in Thai: Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit
</td>
zip code
<td>
18
</td>
<td>
Country with the longest zip code format is Chile with NNNNNNN, NNN-NNNN
</td>
country
<td>
90
</td>
<td>
Longest country name is Libya’s Arabic name prior to 2013: al-Jam-h-riyyah al-‘Arabiyyah al-L?biyyah ash-Sha‘biyyah al-Ishtir-kiyyah al-‘U-má
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