mysql index length_关于mysql index length

这篇文章是我对explain出来之后index的长度产生的一个疑问，然后刨根问底之后总结下来的。

具体可见：http://topic.csdn.net/u/20100727/14/9a63689e-7fdc-4b33-b215-7d08b2aef569.html

总结如下：

一、关于utf8

UTF-8   is   the   8-bit   encoding   of   Unicode.   It   is   a   variable-width   encoding   and   also   a

strict   superset   of   7-bit   ASCII.   A   strict   superset   means   that   each   and   every   character   in   7-bit   ASCII   is   available   in   UTF-8   with   the   same   corresponding   codepoint   value.

One   Unicode   character   can   be   1   byte,   2   bytes,   3   bytes   or   4   bytes   in   this   encoding.

Characters   from   the   European   scripts   are   represented   in   either   1   or   2   bytes;

characters   from   most   Asian   scripts   are   represented   in   3   bytes,   while   supplementary

characters   are   represented   in   4   bytes.

二、When a nullable column is indexed, it requires an extra  byte per entry

因此，当一个char(4)的索引，它的index length是3*4+1=13