CREATE TABLE `t` ( `col_1` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '', `col_2` varchar(255) NOT NULL, `col_3` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0', `col_4` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0' ) ENGINE=Aria TRANSACTIONAL=0 PAGE_CHECKSUM=0; insert into t values ('foobar','qux',0,0),('abcdef','qux',0,0); Compressing test/t.MAD: (2 records) - Calculating statistics normal: 0 empty-space: 0 empty-zero: 0 empty-fill: 0 pre-space: 0 end-space: 0 intervall-fields: 0 zero: 2 Original trees: 4 After join: 1 - Compressing file Min record length: 5 Max length: 5 Mean total length: 35 99.57% # restart SELECT * FROM t; col_1 col_2 col_3 col_4 foobar qux 0 0 abcdef qux 0 0 DROP TABLE t;