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 Difference between Char & nchar datatype

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sethumail
Starting Member

2 Posts

Posted - 2005-02-24 : 09:24:39
Hi,

I'm new in sql server development.Last week i attended the interview and interviewer asked what is the difference between char & nchar and varchar & nvarchar datatype in sql server7.0?

Regards,
sethu

cshah1
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

347 Posts

Posted - 2005-02-24 : 09:44:15
N stands for national character, and it is meant for Unicode data. Using Unicode data types, a column can store any character defined by the Unicode Standard, which includes all of the characters defined in the various character sets. Unicode data types take twice as much storage space as non-Unicode data types.
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eyechart
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

3575 Posts

Posted - 2005-02-24 : 12:14:30
keep in mind that an nchar or nvarchar or ntext datatype takes up twice as much storage as its non-unicode equivalent. This includes space on disk as well as in your buffer cache. So use the unicode datatypes only where necessary.



-ec
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