As I already wrote in an earlier comment, the MySQL manual says:
Values in VARCHAR columns are variable-length strings. The length can
be specified as a value from 0 to 65,535.
So the problem is not with the data type of the field.
The MySQL manual also says:
The result is truncated to the maximum length that is given by the
group_concat_max_len system variable, which has a default value of
1024. The value can be set higher, although the effective maximum length of the return value is constrained by the value of
max_allowed_packet. The syntax to change the value of
group_concat_max_len at runtime is as follows, where val is an
unsigned integer:
SET [GLOBAL | SESSION] group_concat_max_len = val;
Your options for changing the value of group_concat_max_len are:
- changing the value at MySQL startup by appending this to the command:
--group_concat_max_len=your_value_here
- adding this line in your MySQL configuration file (mysql.ini):
group_concat_max_len=your_value_here
- running this command after MySQL startup:
SET GLOBAL group_concat_max_len=your_value_here;
- running this command after opening a MySQL connection:
SET SESSION group_concat_max_len=your_value_here;
Documentation: SET, Server System Variables: group_concat_max_len