Just learned that varchar is a variable length string, but always
takes up the max length size in the database - thanks to Helen.
Therefore my assumption of varchar being slower than char was
apparently wrong.

Is there a data type that takes up a variable amount of space in the
database, depending on the actual content? I sometimes have a
situation, where a field could take anything from 1 to 10000 chars.
Would I need to take any precautions with respect to performance?