[NATIONAL] CHAR(M) [CHARACTER SET charset_name] [COLLATE
collation_name]

A fixed-length string that is always right-padded with spaces to the
specified length when stored. M represents the column length. The range
of M is 0 to 255 characters (1 to 255 prior to MySQL 3.23).

Note: Trailing spaces are removed when CHAR values are retrieved.

In MySQL 4.1, a CHAR column with a length specification greater than
255 is converted to the smallest TEXT type that can hold values of the
given length. For example, CHAR(500) is converted to TEXT, and
CHAR(200000) is converted to MEDIUMTEXT. This is a compatibility
feature. However, this conversion causes the column to become a
variable-length column, and also affects trailing-space removal.
