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&gt;&gt; A character is more than 1 byte in size. &lt;&lt;<br />
For varchar (supports ASCII characters): 1 character = 1 byte. &nbsp;No more, no less.<br />
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Perhap you were thinking of nvarchar which supports double-byte (unicode) characters.<br />

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Yes, that is correct. Sorry. :P
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I am creating a column which will be VARCHAR(MAX).<br />
<br />
On <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms176089.aspx" rel="ugc nofollow">http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms176089.aspx</a><br />
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&quot;Variable-length, non-Unicode character data. n can be a value from 1 through 8,000. max indicates that the maximum storage size is 2^31-1 bytes. The storage size is the actual length of data entered + 2 bytes. The data entered can be 0 characters in length. The ISO synonyms for varchar are char varying or character varying&quot;.<br />
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Does this mean it will be 1 byte for each character + 2 bytes?
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I am creating a column which will be VARCHAR(MAX).

On http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms176089.aspx

"Variable-length, non-Unicode character data. n can be a value from 1 through 8,000. max indicates that the maximum storage size is 2^31-1 bytes. The storage size is the actual length of data entered + 2 bytes. The data entered can be 0 characters in length. The ISO synonyms for varchar are char varying or character varying".

Does this mean it will be 1 byte for each character + 2 bytes?

&gt;&gt; A character is more than 1 byte in size. &lt;&lt;
For varchar (supports ASCII characters): 1 character = 1 byte.  No more, no less.

Perhap you were thinking of nvarchar which supports double-byte (unicode) characters.


VARCHAR (max) size?

I am creating a column which will be VARCHAR(MAX).

On http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms176089.aspx

&quot;Variable-length, non-Unicode character data. n can be a value from 1 through 8,000. max indicates that the maximum storage size is 2^31-1 bytes. The storage size is the actual length of data entered + 2 bytes. The data entered can be 0 characters in length. The ISO synonyms for varchar are char varying or character varying&quot;.

Does this mean it will be 1 byte for each character + 2 bytes?

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is a suite of relational database management system (RDBMS) products providing multi-user database access functionality.Component services include integration (SSIS), reporting (SSRS), analysis (SSAS), data quality, master data, T-SQL and performance tuning. It includes support for managing XML data and allows a database server to be exposed over web services using Tabular Data Stream (TDS) packets encapsulated within SOAP (protocol) requests.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is a suite of relational database management system (RDBMS) products providing multi-user database access functionality.Component services include integration (SSIS), reporting (SSRS), analysis (SSAS), data quality, master data, T-SQL and performance tuning. Major improvements include the  Always On technologies and support for unstructured data types.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Microsoft SQL Server is a suite of relational database management system (RDBMS) products providing multi-user database access functionality.SQL Server is available in multiple versions, typically identified by release year, and versions are subdivided into editions to distinguish between product functionality. Component services include integration (SSIS), reporting (SSRS), analysis (SSAS), data quality, master data, T-SQL and performance tuning.