How long should SQL email fields be?

Question

I recognize that an email address can basically be indefinitely long so any size I impose on my varchar email address field is going to be arbitrary. However, I was wondering what the "standard" is? How long do you guys make it? (same question for Name field...)

update: Apparently the max length for an email address is 320 (<=64 name part, <= 255 domain). Do you use this?

Solution 1

The theoretical limit is really long but do you really need worry about these long Email addresses? If someone can't login with a 100-char Email, do you really care? We actually prefer they can't.

Some statistical data may shed some light on the issue. We analyzed a database with over 10 million Email addresses. These addresses are not confirmed so there are invalid ones. Here are some interesting facts,

1. The longest valid one is 89.
2. There are hundreds longer ones up to the limit of our column (255) but they are apparently fake by visual inspection.
3. The peak of the length distribution is at 19.
4. There isn't long tail. Everything falls off sharply after 38.

We cleaned up the DB by throwing away anything longer than 40. The good news is that no one has complained but the bad news is not many records got cleaned out.

Solution 2

The following email address is only 94 characters:

[e-mail]

• Would an organisation actually give you an email that long?
• If they were stupid enough to, would you actually use an email address like that?
• Would anyone? Of course not. Too long to type and too hard to remember.

Even a 92-year-old technophobe would figure out how to sign up for a nice short gmail address, and just use that, rather than type this into your registration page.

Disk space probably isn't an issue, but there are at least two problems with allowing user input fields to be many times longer than they need to be:

• Displaying them could mess up your UI (at best they will be cut off, at worst they push your containers and margins around)
• Malicious users can do things with them you can't anticipate (like those cases where hackers used a free online API to store a bunch of data)

I like 50 chars:

[email protected]

If one user in a million has to use their other email address to use my app, so be it.

(Statistics show that no-one actually enters more than about 40 chars for email address, see e.g.: ZZ Coder's answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/1297352/87861)

Solution 3

I've in the past just done 255 because that's the so-ingrained standard of short but not too short input. That, and I'm a creature of habit.

However, since the max is 319, I'd do nvarchar(320) on the column. Gotta remember the @!

nvarchar won't use the space that you don't need, so if you only have a 20 character email address, it will only take up 20 bytes. This is in contrast to a nchar which will always take up its maximum (it right-pads the value with spaces).

I'd also use nvarchar in lieu of varchar since it's Unicode. Given the volatility of email addresses, this is definitely the way to go.

Solution 4

According to this text, based on the proper RFC documents, it's not 320 but 254: http://www.eph.co.uk/resources/email-address-length-faq/

Edit: Using WayBack Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20120222213813/http://www.eph.co.uk/resources/email-address-length-faq/

What is the maximum length of an email address?

254 characters

There appears to be some confusion over the maximum valid email address size. Most people believe it to be 320 characters (64 characters for the username + 255 characters for the domain + 1 character for the @ symbol). Other sources suggest 129 (64 + 1 + 64) or 384 (128+1+255, assuming the username doubles in length in the future).

This confusion means you should heed the 'robustness principle' ("developers should carefully write software that adheres closely to extant RFCs but accept and parse input from peers that might not be consistent with those RFCs." - Wikipedia) when writing software that deals with email addresses. Furthermore, some software may be crippled by naive assumptions, e.g. thinking that 50 characters is adequate (examples). Your 200 character email address may be technically valid but that will not help you if most websites or applications reject it.

The actual maximum email length is currently 254 characters:

"The original version of RFC 3696 did indeed say 320 was the maximum length, but John Klensin (ICANN) subsequently accepted this was wrong."

"This arises from the simple arithmetic of maximum length of a domain (255 characters) + maximum length of a mailbox (64 characters) + the @ symbol = 320 characters. Wrong. This canard is actually documented in the original version of RFC3696. It was corrected in the errata. There's actually a restriction from RFC5321 on the path element of an SMTP transaction of 256 characters. But this includes angled brackets around the email address, so the maximum length of an email address is 254 characters." - Dominic Sayers

Solution 5

If you're really being pendantic about it, make a username varchar(60), domain varchar(255). Then you can do ridiculous statistics on domain usage that is slightly faster than doing it as a single field. If you're feeling really gun-ho about optimization, that will also make your SMTP server able to send out emails with fewer connections / better batching.

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Comments

[IDisposable]

What RFC are you using for those values?

[Mala]

stackoverflow.com/questions/386294/…

[Havenard]

255+64 = 319, 320 is counting the @

[MGOwen]

Thank goodness for some common sense. Everyone saying "make it 320!" please, please type out a 320 character email address, take a long hard look at it, and ask yourself whether anyone on earth would ever use such an address in your app.

[MGOwen]

thisemailaddressisonly160charslong-thatishalfofwhatyousugges‌​t-iknowperformancewo‌​ntusuallybeanissue@b‌​utuserswithnoemailad‌​dressunder100charswi‌​llNEVERbeanissue.com

[nikib3ro]

40? Guess you are then in a club of developer who officially hate Facebook Proxy Emails (a.k.a - apps+71659911993.252400001.671333361e563e7852e650c93c3b821c@‌​proxymail.facebook.c‌​om). I actually preach size of 90... interestingly enough, it goes well with #1 on your list.

[Michael C. Gates]

Depends on what the email is used for. If it's for users, I agree, 40, maybe 50 is sufficient. I just did a test and found the majority are between 17 and 25. Very rarely over 40.

[Andy Groff]

s/gung?-ho(?:\s*about)?/dedicated to/

[Chukky Nze]

I've used 120 variable characters for years. The real world logic is that even if someone is ready to fill your 320 varchar field...I bet they have a 40 char alternative email just standing by

[Patrick]

The link no longer works. This is why it's recommended to paste the relevant information.

[KingAndrew]

Down voted because even though you think it impossible someone that takes your advice would be coding a bug into their code.