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Default varchar length is 255, not 256. Why ?

 
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I'm using openJPA with apache derby.

If I do not specify the actual width of the varchar field, it automatically
maps a String field to a varchar(255).

My question: why 255, and not 256 (since 256 is a power of two) ?
 
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I'm guessing since the count is 0 based. 0-255 = 256 possible values.
 
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The length of the varchar is stored as a byte by the RDBMS. This makes the possible range of 8-bit values 0-255.
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