Common data types used for storing character data include char, varchar, and text. Some database management systems also support additional text data types such as tinytext, mediumtext, and longtext. If the standard character data types are not large enough for a certain database field, the CLOB data type may be used. Since CLOB data may be very large, some database management systems do not store the text directly in the table. Instead, the CLOB field serves as an address, which references the location of the data.
CLOBs provide a way to store unusually large amounts of text, such as an entire book or publication. However, some database programs cannot run certain text operations on CLOB fields, such SQL commands with the "LIKE" condition. Therefore, it is often better to use other character data types for smaller text values.