<char dimension with charset UTF8>

[max power]

Hi everybody,
1) I was wondering if I'd better performance in using a char instead of a tinyint, needing just to rappresent a number from 1 to 3 (or better 3 values),
Had I?

CREATE TABLE 'user'
( 'level' int );

CREATE TABLE 'user'
( 'level' char(1) );

2) I'm using the UTF-8 charset in my web pages and mysql, but while a char means 1 byte, an UTF8 char mean 3 (soon 4) bytes: is it right?
So when I use a char in my table with the UTF8 charset, mysql is occupying 3-4 bytes? Is it right?

Thanks for your replies :)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2010 03:43PM by max power.