title: limit of characters in columns in a table vs. validations in Rails
body: <p>I'm a Rails beginner and wanted to ask this question:</p>
  <p>How is setting a limit in characters in a name column <code>(t.string :name, :limit =&gt; 5)</code> in a table diferrent from a validation <code>validates_length_of :name, :is =&gt; 5</code>?</p>
  <p>The first one does not really work when I use it. Even if I put a limit of 5, every time I would save a record with a name of more than 5 characters it would still save it. What is its real use?</p>
  <p>The validation is what's working in terms of limiting the characters for a person's name when saving a record.</p>
  <p>Am I confusing setting a limit of characters in a table for restricting the number of characters someone can enter into the database?</p>