How to store text inputs of unknown & varying size?

Question

I am trying to create a table (or several) to receive user inputs (UGC). This content could vary in size from a single character up to a few hundred words. The input will be coded in utf8_unicode_ci and could be in Latin or multi-byte characters.

The input will have to be search-able.

How should I structure my DB to allow for a good compromise between flexibility and performance? I could for example...

1. Set up a high limit on the size of the string and take the performance & usability hits.
2. Create several tables for various size ranges, and identify each item by a combination of table name and ID (so I'd need a central table with unique ID, table name, table-specific ID).
3. Break down each input into its various components (i.e., words) and store the words separately, along with a relation that maps each statement to a series of word IDs...

I'm sure there are other options.

Answer 1

I guess it may depend slightly on your database engine, but more than likely it has a field for "Text" (as opposed to "Varchar" or "Char") that is suited for holding varying sizes of text data. Essentially this your option #1.

If it's going to be in MySQL then you have a Text or Blob field available: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/blob.html