---
title: String Data Type reference
meta:
    description: Strings of arbitrary length.
---

# String

The `String` data type stores sequences of characters of any length. There is no predefined limit to the length of a `String` value. It can contain any sequence of bytes, including null bytes. This type serves as a versatile replacement for various string and binary types found in other database systems, such as `VARCHAR`, `BLOB`, and `TEXT`.

While you might encounter syntax like `VARCHAR(255)` when defining string fields in other systems, Tinybird (and ClickHouse) ignores any numeric length parameters specified for `String` types.

Aliases:

- `String`: `LONGTEXT`, `MEDIUMTEXT`, `TINYTEXT`, `TEXT`, `LONGBLOB`, `MEDIUMBLOB`, `TINYBLOB`, `BLOB`, `VARCHAR`, `CHAR`, `CHAR LARGE OBJECT`, `CHAR VARYING`, `CHARACTER LARGE OBJECT`, `CHARACTER VARYING`, `NCHAR LARGE OBJECT`, `NCHAR VARYING`, `NATIONAL CHARACTER LARGE OBJECT`, `NATIONAL CHARACTER VARYING`, `NATIONAL CHAR VARYING`, `NATIONAL CHARACTER`, `NATIONAL CHAR`, `BINARY LARGE OBJECT`, `BINARY VARYING`,

## Encodings

Tinybird does not enforce specific character encodings for `String` data. Strings are stored and output exactly as they are provided, as raw sequences of bytes. For text data, it is highly recommended to use UTF-8 encoding. This ensures compatibility and proper display, especially when interacting with terminals or applications that expect UTF-8.

Some string functions offer variations that operate under the assumption that the string contains UTF-8 encoded text. For instance, the `length` function calculates the number of bytes in a string, whereas `lengthUTF8` determines the number of Unicode code points, assuming the input is UTF-8.

## Working with JSON objects

JSON objects can be ingested as a `String` data type. You can ingest your JSON data as a `String` and use [JSON functions](../functions/json-functions#jsonextract-functions) to parse the specific fields you need. To optimize performance, you can store these parsed values in Materialized Views.