What is the recommended data type in a MySQL database for storing text from a <textarea> field in a form?

When storing text from a <textarea> field in a form in a MySQL database, the recommended data type to use is TEXT. TEXT is suitable for storing large amounts of text data, such as user comments or descriptions, as it can hold up to 65,535 characters. To implement this in a MySQL database, you would define the column for the text field as type TEXT.

// Create a table in MySQL database with a column for storing text from <textarea> field
$sql = "CREATE TABLE form_data (
    id INT(6) UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    textarea_text TEXT
)";

// Execute the SQL query to create the table
if ($conn->query($sql) === TRUE) {
    echo "Table created successfully";
} else {
    echo "Error creating table: " . $conn->error;
}